Clean city campaign begins with daisies, a nod to 20th century quilt
MARION, Ind. (WISH) — Marion city government is encouraging people to plant white daisies as part of its Clean City 2.0 campaign.
The flower choice is a nod to an early 20th century quilt designer.
The white daisy is the official city flower as a result of the Hall of Fame quilt design. Encouraging its planting is the start of a clean city campaign that was one of four goals of the new Republican mayor, Ronald Morrell Jr.
A news release from the city government said, “The community will start to see the image of the white daisy pop up around town, and more so, will be encouraged to plant them around their homes and places of business to celebrate Marion’s new journey toward a cleaner city. The city flower will connect the community as the first phase of the Clean City 2.0 initiative, which is Mayor Morrell’s main focus in regenerating Marion, paying homage to campaigns of the past.”
The release cited Marie D. Webster, a quilt designer and an entrepreneur from about 1905 to 1942, as the inspiration for planting white daisies. Webster also is known as one of the first Americans to write a history of quilts.
The former Webster family home in Marion once had a garden of daisies that inspired the quilter to make a design with the flower. Today, that former home houses the Quilters Hall of Fame. The white daisy of Webster’s quilts and quilt patterns was sold worldwide, the museum says.
Webster was born in 1859 in Wabash to parents who had migrated from Ohio to become pioneer farmers. Her father eventually became a bank president. Her mother, Minerva, “was an excellent needlewoman who taught her three daughters those plain and fancy sewing skills so important to domestic life in the nineteenth century,” the Hall of Fame biography of Webster says.
Webster died in Aug. 29, 1956, at age 97, in New Jersey.
The daisies are just the start of the clean city campaign, the mayor says. Morrell says he and his team are finalizing measurable goals under Clean City 2.0.
Marion, a Grant County city of 28,000 residents, is about a 90-minute drive northeast of downtown Indianapolis.
Below are photos, of Marie D. Webster and her daisy quilt provided by the Quilters Hall of Fame.
Below is a provided image from the Marion city government.
