For more than 50 years, Americans who served in the armed forces have been celebrated on Veterans Day thanks to a Kansas shoe salesman.
Al King, a shoe store owner from Emporia, Kansas, spearheaded a 1953 campaign to establish Veterans Day on Armistice Day, commemorating the Nov. 11 end of World War I.
While King himself did not serve, he tried to join the Navy towards the end of World War I when he was 15. Years later, King’s nephew, John Cooper, was killed in action in 1944 while serving with the Third U.S. Army in Germany. The bereaved King wanted to create a day celebrating all veterans.
The campaign was picked up by the Emporia Chamber of Commerce, which found that most of the local shop owners were willing to close their doors to honor veterans. On Nov. 11, 1953, the first Veterans Day was celebrated on the streets of Emporia.
King didn’t stop there. He became the general chairman of the All Veterans Day Committee, which was comprised of several veterans groups like the Veterans of Foreign Wars and American Legion.
“He worked with Congressman Ed Rees to get Veterans Day started up, and essentially, they wrote up a bill and they got it passed so that it would be a day to honor all veterans,” William Boyer, research librarian at the Lyon County History Center, told the Washington Examiner.
President Dwight Eisenhower signed the bill into law on May 26, 1954, making Nov. 11, 1954, the first nationwide Veterans Day.
The history of Veterans Day is a point of pride for Emporia’s 25,000 citizens, said Susan Rathke, director of Emporia’s Area Chamber & Visitors Bureau. The city hangs banners honoring individual veterans on street poles, and a parade is held each year where locals enjoy a meal of ham and beans — an old military standard. They also hold an essay and poster contest each year for the city’s students.
“We try to make sure the locals do understand that history,” Rathke told the Washington Examiner. “There isn’t a city around that doesn’t celebrate Veterans Day, and that’s wonderful.”
