On September 21, 1948, the U.S. Post Office issued the Gold Star Mothers stamp to honor mothers whose sons had been killed in war. It was the first stamp in eight years to feature women (or women’s organizations), and just the 11th stamp overall to do so. In 1917, Robert Queissner, an Army captain, designed a flag to honor the service of his sons in World War I. The flag had a blue star on a white field, with a red border. It caught on quickly – by September of the same year, Ohio Governor James Cox had adopted it