Laura Dumey is executive director of the Stars & Stripes National Museum and Library
Laura Dumey shares and saves thousands of stories every single day when she comes to work at the Stars and Stripes National Museum and Library. The institution honors the nation’s military newspaper, which began during the Civil War in Bloomfield.
“We are closely tied to the Stars and Stripes newspaper,” the museum’s executive director says; the paper is still published globally. “The publisher of the newspaper comes to our museum every November, and he attends what we call our Spirit of Democracy event, which is our big fundraiser.”
The southeast Missouri community where Stars and Stripes was born is also where Dumey grew up. Pride in the paper’s history grew locally in the 1960s when the Stoddard County Historical Society received one of its first editions. Years later, the Stars and Stripes museum became its own entity, and Dumey joined as a volunteer.
“The more I learned about this newspaper and how it was different than any other newspaper in the world — we’re a country that has the freedom to criticize our government in our military newspaper — I thought that was pretty cool,” she says.
That work has taken her across the globe to retrieve artifacts for the museum. Recently she traveled to Germany to receive newspapers from the Vietnam War era, as well as an original printing plate used after 9/11. That trip was supported by a grant from United for Veterans; other work at Stars and Stripes has been aided by funds held with the CFO. The museum also received a Shaping Tomorrow grant from the CFO to update its online giving platform.
“Our mission is always free,” Dumey says. “We want people to come visit — because, like me, if you stop by, you will fall in love and get sucked in.”
Who inspires you? Send your suggestions of individuals moving the needle in your community to Kaitlyn McConnell, the CFO's writer in residence, at kmcconnell@cfozarks.org.
