The Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture

CLEMENT, RUTH DICKINSON (1873–1953)

Designer of Oklahoma’s first state flag, Ruth Dickinson Clement was born in Caldwell County, Kentucky, on December 20, 1873. She was the daughter of W. P. and Louisa Monroe Dickinson. Ruth Dickinson’s arrival in Indian Territory remains undocumented, but by the early 1890s she was in Ardmore, where she met and married physician William Richard Clement. The couple moved to Marquette, Kansas, where William had established a practice. They had one daughter.

The Clements moved to Oklahoma City, Oklahoma Territory, in 1904. Ruth Clement quickly established herself among the city’s social elite and rose through the ranks of several women’s clubs. In 1906 she founded a social and literary club in the Capitol Hill neighborhood. She became president of the Oklahoma City Federation of Women’s Clubs in 1909, and in 1910 she joined the Women of ’89. She joined the Daughters of the American Revolution in 1915. Clement was most active in the United Daughters of the Confederacy, Oklahoma Division (UDC), serving as secretary and first vice president before becoming president in 1910.

The election of Lee Cruce, her husband’s brother-in-law, as governor in 1910 drew Clement into designing a state flag for Oklahoma. In 1911 she settled on a design comprised of a five-pointed, white star edged in blue and set within a red field. The number 46, signifying Oklahoma’s admission as the 46th state to the Union in 1907, was set in the center of the star. With Governor Cruce’s support, the state legislature approved Clement’s design on March 2, 1911. Although rarely displayed, this design remained the official flag of the State of Oklahoma until 1925. Cruce also appointed Clement to the Board of Trustees of the Oklahoma Confederate Home, which opened in Ardmore in July 1911. She campaigned for Commissioner of Charities and Corrections in 1914 but lost the Democratic primary.

Clement later moved to Tulsa, Oklahoma, where she remained active in the UDC but otherwise withdrew from public life. She died on May 28, 1953, and is buried in Tulsa’s Memorial Park Cemetery.

Matthew Pearce