BLUE STAR HIGHWAYS

This is the story of a historical marker without much of a history.

Twenty-five years ago, the Texas Garden Clubs, Inc. of Texas embarked on a mission to dedicate a series of Blue Star Memorial Highways as a means of honoring the services of men and women who served in the U.S. armed forces during World War II.

At the request of garden clubs throughout the state, the Texas Highway Department in 1976 designated eight highway sections as Blue Star Memorial routes. Large metal markers bearing the Blue Star symbol were placed along the roadsides of each segment.

The program was actually a national campaign inaugurated by the National Council of State Garden Clubs and may have been started in Texas as early as 1947 because one highway was designated by state officials then and modified in 1953. Another was set aside in 1975.

But over the span of five decades, the story behind these historical markers has been lost in the mists of history.

Our interest in the Blue Star Memorial Highways was aroused when a friend called with a request for information about "the Blue Star marker on U.S. 59 near the Highway Department" in Lufkin. She said she had checked a number of local historical sources, but found little information.

For a while, we also ran into a brick wall. Our old reliable resource, the Handbook of Texas and its online companion, made no mention of the designations. Calls to libraries and a couple of East Texas historians produced little or no information. Then, we did what we should have done in the first place. We called Cathy White, the community relations representative of the Lufkin office of the Texas Department of Transportation.

In a few days, Cathy solved at least a portion of the mystery.

On May 4, 1976, the Texas Department of Highways approved a minute order in Austin granting the Texas Garden Clubsą request to designate the memorial highways and agreed to erect Blue Star markers provided by the garden club ladies.

Between 1976 and 1988 the state approved orders designating eight stretches of roadway as Blue Star routes. They are:

• U.S. 59 from Houston to Texarkana (designated 1976)
• FM 3188 from State 94 to its end at Camp Olympia in Trinity County (1983)
• U.S. 271 from Paris to Gladewater (1978)
• U.S. 287 from the Anderson-Houston county line to the Johnson-Ellis county line (1976).
• U.S. 385 from Big Bend National Park north to the Oklahoma state line north of Dalhart (1976).
• State 155 from Palestine to Linden (1975)
• U.S. 77 from the Oklahoma state line at Gainesville to Denton, then via other highways the New Mexico state line (1947 and 1953).
• SS 496 at Avondale from its junction with U.S. 287 southeasterly via Saginaw, Fort Worth and Kennedale to its junction with U.S. 287 in Mansfield (1988)
  
  Some portions of the history of the Blue Star Memorial Highways remain unknown.
• Where did the name Blue Star originate?
• How, when and where did the designation program begin?
• How many markers were erected in Texas and the U.S.?
• How many highways were marked in the U.S.
  
  If you can help us better define the history of these old historical markers, let us know.