FACE OF THE PAST: LOOK-ALIKE FOR OLIVER PICKED

JACKSON -- Marie Watkins Oliver, the designer of the Missouri flag, was a strong-willed Presbyterian who expected every member of her extended family to appear at her house each Sunday in their best clothes.

Doubtless, the T-shirts and shorts in the audience at Sunday's Mrs. Oliver Look-Alike Contest at the Oliver House would have produced apoplexy in her, despite the 95-degree heat.

"There was a way to do things and that's how it was done," said John Oliver Jr., her great-grandson and the contest's judge.

The first-ever contest, meant to honor the designer of the Missouri flag and held on the day before Flag Day, drew six contestants and an audience of about 25.

The well-dressed Mrs. Oliver contestants wore the fashion of her day. Three depicted the Miss Oliver who sat for a portrait at 16, one the middle-aged Mrs. Oliver, and two the elder Mrs. Oliver pictured with the flag adopted by the state legislature in 1913.

All the contestants appeared on the house's second-floor balcony dressed in period costumes. Some had a few words to say as Mrs. Oliver.

"Lawdy, lawdy, it sure is hot out here," drawled hair dresser Shery Varney, the young Mrs. Oliver winner. Her chutzpah and pipe curls defeated teen-agers Sarah Strack and Sara Johnston.

Barbara Popp, a Jackson Heritage Association member who is in charge of the tour guides at the Oliver House, had no competition as the middle-aged Mrs. Oliver. But she educated the audience about the significance of the flag's colors red, white and blue anyway.

Oliver said that Marjorie Swan of Pocahontas bears a distinct resemblance to his great-grandmother and chose her as the winner of the elder Mrs. Oliver contest. Also competing was Betty Davis.

Swan said she feels a kinship with Oliver, beginning with their membership in the Daughters of the American Revolution. "She was interested in history, genealogy, love of country and love of home," Swan said. "She was a dedicated lady.

"I've tried to teach ... the value of a home, belonging to a church and loyalty to country."

Swan hopes those values aren't disappearing from the landscape.

"I think today's young people see a different sense of values," she said. "The world is so much larger, and they're coming in contact with so many different people."

Each winner in the contest received a $50 savings bond, vintage dishes, a cookbook and a bouquet.

Also honored during the afternoon was Amber Ellinghouse, whose scale replica of the flag was on display. A soon-to-be fifth-grader at Alma Schrader School, she made the flag as a class project during the past school year.

The Oliver House is filled with heirlooms, many of them provided by the Oliver family. Among the items are a fainting couch (forerunner to the hide-a-bed), a stereoscope (forerunner to movies and TV), and a muzzle-loading rifle.

A small compartment in the rifle's stock says it was used during the War of 1812 by James Russell, who in 1820 published the first newspaper in Cape Girardeau County.

The Oliver House is the only building in Jackson on the National Register of Historic Places. The house is open Sundays from 1:30-4 p.m.