Flag City (Edna nickname)

The city of Edna is called “Flag City” because of its show of support for the Vietnam War in 1967-68. Mayor A. D. Tinker got fed up after he saw the anti-war demonstrations at the University of California at Berkeley. He had Edna’s businesses and citizens display the flag daily (except Sunday) until an honorable peace was achieved in Vietnam. The story received national attention and, by May 1968, Edna was referred to as “Flag City.”
   
“Flag City” hasn’t been trademarked, but the city still uses the nickname.
 
 
Wikipedia: Edna, Texas
Edna is a city in Jackson County, Texas, United States. The population was 5,899 at the 2000 census. It is the county seat of Jackson County.
 
Edna is the gateway to 11,000-acre (45 km²) Lake Texana, which covers the site of Texana, Texas. The city has a hospital, convalescent home, library, museum, city park with swimming pool, three banks, two savings and loan associations, a country club with a nine-hole golf course, and Oak Creek Village, a retirement community. It is the center of a prosperous agricultural area with petroleum and natural gas production and has an active chamber of commerce, oilfield service industries, and two grain elevators.
 
The town was named after a daughter of Count Joseph Telfener - an Italian entrepreneur who was building a railroad from Rosenburg to Victoria. Other family members had towns named after them as well. While the railroad had the ambitious name of The New York, Texas and Mexican Railroad, it didn’t originate in New York, nor did it reach Mexico. Known as “The Macaroni Line” for the Italian workmen who were brought from Italy for construction, the rails eventually went as far as Victoria.
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Edna is know as “The Flag City Of Texas”, according to the city’s website
 
Welcome to Edna, Texas
Welcome to the website of Edna, the “Flag City” of Texas and the county seat of Jackson County.
 
Situated at the intersection of US Highway 59 and State Highway 111, twenty five minutes away from the Victoria Metropolitan Area and two hours from Houston, Edna is steeped in history and offers an appealing small-town lifestyle with good schools, sound business opportunities, and an array of local and regional events, recreation activities, and historical sites.
 
Edna traces its history to the settlement of the Texana town site in 1824. Texana served as the focal point of county activities until the railroad bypassed Texana in favor of the current Edna town site.
 
Named for the middle daughter of the founder of the New York, Texas and Mexico Railroad, Edna was founded on July 02, 1884. Incorporation was both approved and abolished in 1899. In January 1926 the City was again incorporated and a commission form of government was adopted. The City’s home rule charter was adopted in 1966.
 
Edna became the “Flag City” in 1968, when the City Council passed a resolution stating that inasmuch as our sons were risking their lives in a conflict on foreign soil; and knowing the draft card burning, protest marches and anti-war demonstrations aided and comforted the enemy and prolonged the war; the City Of Edna condemned all such un-American activities, and wished to show its support of the government of the United States, and decreed that the Flag of the United States be flown along City streets until an honorable peace had been secured in Vietnam. The resolution appeared in national publications, including the Stars and Stripes newspaper in Vietnam. One local citizen, serving in Vietnam at the time, became a celebrity among his peers simply because Edna was his home town. This patriotic, no-nonsense attitude still exists in Edna and is symbolized by the ongoing use of the Flag City motto and the daily display of American flags in downtown Edna.
 
Flag City Opry - Edna, Texas
Welcome to
Flag City Opry
Edna, Texas
 
17 December 1967, Corpus Christi (TX) Caller-Times, “Edna Sprouting Tri Colors to Show Support of Vietnam” by Kenneth Carter, pg, 12A, col. 1:
EDNA—President Johnson and other Americans who believe this country should remain in Vietnam until an acceptable settlement is made to the conflict there will be heartened by the fact that this county seat city of Jackson County agrees and is showing it.
 
Edna is flying a hundred flags every day of the year except Sunday until “an honorable peace has been secured in Vietnam.”
 
It is a double-edged display of patriotism. The action not only demonstrates support of our national policy in Vietnam, it also manifests a protest against protesters of that policy.
 
Mayor’s Idea
The action was conceived by Mayor A. D. Tinker, who said:
 
“I recently visited some of my children in California. On the campus of the University of California at Berkeley, I saw the hippies, and the sit-ins, and the demonstrations.
 
“I just got fed up with it.”
 
Tinker, a retired Shell Oil Co. employe who now operates a real estate business, pondered what he might do to show “in some way” that other Americans had another view.
 
14 March 1968, Victoria (TX) Advocate, “Edna’s ‘Flag City’ Program Gaining National Attention” by Hal Cherry, pg. 1, col. 1:
EDNA—This city’s patriotic flag displaying program still is attracting national interest, as evidenced Sunday when a local citizen received a letter from West Virginia addressed simply: “Flag City, Texas.” Neither the word “Edna” nor the ZIP number were on the envelope, still the letter came straight through on schedule.

Mayor A. D. Tinker, who last November suggested the flag project to the Edna City Council, reported this week he has received an estimated 150 letters expressing appreciation and approval of the program backing the U. S. Vietnam War policy “until an honorable peace has been secured.” Nearly 100 per cent of the business firms and many homes have displayed the American flag daily since Nov. 4, 1967.
 
Tinker points out the Edna “flag story” was distributed nationally by the Associated Press wire service, and has been published in the Atlantic and Pacific editions of the Stars and Stripes and other publications of the armed services.