Gold Star Mothers Club

Gold Star Mothers Club

Shortly after World War I the American Gold Star Mothers Inc. was formed in the United States to provide support for mothers who lost sons or daughters in the war. The name came from the custom of families of servicemen hanging a banner called a Service Flag in the window of their homes. The Service Flag had a star for each family member in the United States Armed Forces. Living servicemen were represented by a blue star, and those who had lost their lives were represented by a gold star. Gold Star Mothers are often socially active but are non-political. Today, membership in the Gold Star Mothers is open to any American woman who has lost a son or daughter in service to the United States. On the last Sunday in September, Gold Star Mother's Day is observed in the U.S. in their honor. The group holds a congressional charter under Title 36 of the United States Code.

Read more about Gold Star Mothers Club:  Founding, Today, Controversy, Uniform, License Plates, American Gold Star Manor, Notable Members

Famous quotes containing the words gold, star, mothers and/or club:

    Arrive in the afternoon, the late light slanting
    In diluted gold bars across the boulevard brag
    Of proud, seamed faces with mercy and murder hinting
    here, there, interrupting, all deep and debonair,
    The pink paint on the innocence of fear;
    Walk in a gingerly manner up the hall.
    Gwendolyn Brooks (b. 1917)

    And though in tinsel chain and popcorn rope
    My tree, a captive in your window bay,
    Has lost its footing on my mountain slope
    And lost the stars of heaven, may, oh, may
    The symbol star it lifts against your ceiling
    Help me accept its fate with Christmas feeling.
    Robert Frost (1874–1963)

    Contrary to all we hear about women and their empty-nest problem, it may be fathers more often than mothers who are pained by the children’s imminent or actual departure—fathers who want to hold back the clock, to keep the children in the home for just a little longer. Repeatedly women compare their own relief to their husband’s distress
    Lillian Breslow Rubin (20th century)

    Women ... are completely alone, though they were born and bred upon this soil, as if they belonged to another class in creation.
    “Jennie June” Croly 1829–1901, U.S. founder of the woman’s club movement, journalist, author, editor. F, Demorest’s Illustrated Monthly Mirror of Fashions, pp. 363-4 (December 1870)