The Arkansas Flag/Wabbaseka Memorial was founded by Jason Irby in 2013 in Wabbaseka City Park to honor the one hundredth year of Arkansas’s state flag, Willie K. Hocker of Wabbaseka, who designed the flag, and the Navy battleship USS Arkansas. After Irby publicly pledged on January 1, 2013, to establish the memorial, the Wabbaseka Memorial Committee was formed the following week with Irby as chairman and Marla Barnes, Narvell Irby, Geraldine Moore, Jeanette Dardenne, Verlee Moore, Gary Robinson, and Gloria Scott as initial members. A ceremony on February 26, 2013, commemorated the flag’s official adoption date and included a groundbreaking at the memorial site. On May 14, 2013, Irby announced an official design contest in Hot Springs while presenting an exhibit on the memorial and the historical flag-related events he had helped organize. The memorial was revealed to the public during the Arkansas Flag/Wabbaseka Memorial Showcase and Dedication Ceremony on October 12, 2013, in Wabbaseka City Park. A motorcade began in Hot Springs at Oaklawn Park, where the Arkansas flag was first revealed at the 1913 Arkansas State Fair, stopped in Little Rock, home of the current Arkansas State Fair, then continued to Pine Bluff, where Willie K. Hocker taught and lived, before ending in Wabbaseka, her hometown. The event drew media attention and attendance from military, state and local government, community and regional guests, Dollarway High School, and many supporters.