By BETH RUCKER, Associated Press April 11, 2005 NASHVILLE - While other Southern state flags have struggled with poor design or lingering Confederate imagery, Tennessee's red banner with a wheel of three stars has remained popular since it was adopted 100 years ago. The state's most recognizable symbol, is a common sight across the state and has inspired logos of First Tennessee Bank and the Tennessee Titans. "If you drive across Tennessee, you see lots of homes flying the flag - maybe because it looks better than other state flags," said Devereaux Cannon, vice president of the North American Vexillological Association and a Sumner County resident. The design was adopted officially with a bill approved by the General Assembly on April 17, 1905, after two other designs failed to find their way into general use in the 1800s. Johnson City attorney and Tennessee National Guard Capt. LeRoy Reeves developed the flag as it appears today probably because the other two designs did not look very effective on a flagpole, said Candace Adelson, senior curator of textiles and fashion at the Tennessee State Museum. Reeves described his design, saying it would include three stars to represent the three grand divisions of the state. "They are bound together by the endless circle of the blue field, the symbol being three bound together in one - an indissoluble trinity," he said in his early 20th- century description. The blue stripe at the fly end of the flag "relieves the sameness of the crimson field and prevents the flag from showing too much crimson when hanging limp." A survey conducted by the vexillological association rated the Tennessee flag in the top 10 of state flags. Peter Orenski, a flagmaker in Connecticut, said the Tennessee flag is "a flagmaker's dream" with basic colors and a simple design. "A flag has to be simple without being simplistic," he said. "Here is a flag, in terms of a flagmaker, that is simple without being simplistic. It says Tennessee to anyone who knows anything about it." Ted Kaye, an officer in the vexillological association and author of the booklet "Good Flag, Bad Flag," said the Tennessee banner stands out from half of the other U.S. state flags that have come to be known as "s.o.b. flags." "They're what we call a 'seal on a bedsheet,' " he said. "They're just a state seal plopped on a blue field."

Original Tennessee Flag Designed by LeRoy Reeves
Colonel LeRoy Reeves
Johnson City Comet: February 5, 1903