HistoricSiteMarkers
Postwar & Contemporary

Blue Star Memorial Highway

Cornelia, Habersham County, Georgia

Marker Inscription

Blue Star Memorial Highway A tribute to the Armed Forces that have defended the United States of America sponsored by The Cornelia Garden Club a Member of the Laurel District of The Garden Club of Georgia, Inc. in cooperation with The City of Cornelia

Erected by National Garden Clubs, Inc.

The Story

Blue Star Memorial Highways honor the armed forces with a symbol taken from the blue-star service flags of World War II. Begun by garden clubs in 1945, the program spread across the country through local clubs and city partnerships. This marker in Cornelia was placed by the Cornelia Garden Club, part of the Laurel District, with the City of Cornelia.

Why it matters

It captures how small towns joined a national movement to honor military service through their own streets and highways.

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Themes & tags

Military & WartimeMemorial

Nearby & related markers

Blue Star Memorial A tribute to the Armed Forces

Clarkesville, GA

Blue Star Memorials trace to 1945, when garden clubs lined a New Jersey highway with flowering dogwoods to honor World War II troops, later broadening to salute the whole of the armed forces. In Clarkesville, the Garden Club of Georgia and the Clarkesville Garden Club placed this marker with local support. The blue star recalls the service flags hung in the windows of homes with family in uniform.

Blue Star Memorial

Toccoa, GA

Blue Star Memorials trace to 1945, when garden clubs in New Jersey planted dogwoods along a highway to honor the armed forces, borrowing the blue star of the wartime service flags families displayed at home. The National Garden Clubs spread the program nationwide, and this Toccoa marker, sponsored by the Horti-Floral Garden Club, joins that chain of roadside tributes to everyone who has served the United States.

Blue Star Memorial

Helen, GA

The Blue Star Memorial program grew from a 1945 garden-club tribute to the armed forces, its blue star taken from the service flags of World War II and spread nationwide by the National Garden Clubs. In the alpine-themed town of Helen, the Soque Garden Club and the City of Helen placed this marker to honor all who have served in defense of the United States.

Blue Star Memorial Highway

Franklin County, GA

Blue Star Memorial Highways honor the armed forces with a symbol drawn from the service flags of World War II. Begun by garden clubs in 1945 and maintained ever since with state transportation departments, the markers dedicate roads across the country. This one in Franklin County was placed by the Garden Club of Georgia with the Toccoa Garden Club.