MARYLAND HEIGHTS, Mo. -- Dozens of women gathered in the St. Louis area over the weekend for the 66th national convention of the Gold Star Wives of America.

Gold Star Wives is open to widows of military personnel who die on active duty or of confirmed service-related disabilities.

Gold Star Wives and Gold Star Mothers took their names from the banner with an embroidered gold star that a family displays when one of its own is killed in wartime.

Gold Star Wives claims about 8,000 members nationwide. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported Sunday that 67 women attended the convention in Maryland Heights.

Among those attending was founding member Marie Jordan Speer, 90, of Plano, Texas.