• Blue skies and sunshine translate to a perfect summer day. Those elements are reflected in South Dakota's flag.
• The story of the state's banner began in 1909, when State Sen. Ernest May of Deadwood walked into the office of the State Department of History in Pierre. He discussed the need for a state flag with state historian Doane Robinson.
• "Turning to me, Robinson said, 'Miss Anding will make you a flag,'" Ida (Anding) McNeil said in an article in the Jan. 20, 1963, Rapid City Daily Journal.
• McNeil, a legislative reference librarian at the time, designed and made a flag that featured a blazing sun in the center of a field of blue, with the words "South Da

kota" above the sun in the arc of the circle and "The Sunshine State" below the sun in the arc of the circle. McNeil said in the newspaper article that Robinson suggested a blazing sun emblem because of South Dakota's many days of sunshine. McNeil showed the sample flag to Robinson, who remarked that the Great Seal of the State of South Da

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