The poem was published in Punch magazine later ... Americans owe the tradition of wearing a red poppy on Memorial Day to Moina Michael. She was a professor at the University of Georgia who was ...

The poppy has a long association with Remembrance Day ... the poppy as a lasting memorial symbol to the fallen was realised by the Canadian surgeon John McCrae in his poem In Flanders Fields.

In the poem, McCrae described how "the poppies blow, between the crosses ... and began a poppy distribution program in 1924. Just before Memorial Day in 1922, the VFW held its first poppy ...