Elizabeth Gentry Sayad

Excellence in Community Heritage

 

Elizabeth Gentry Sayad served as co-chairperson, coordinating and organizing the Three Flags Festival to commemorate the Louisiana Purchase and the Lewis and Clark Bicentennial, which attracted more than 40,000 participants. This included radio, television and internet placement and 26 events, many of which were attended by the Spanish and French Ambassadors, the President of the American Indian Federation, the Principal Chief of the Osage Nation, the Directors of the US Mint and National Park Service, the Assistant Secretary of the Interior, Missouri's First Lady, Senator Bond and St. Louis Mayor Slay.

Elizabeth helped create two lasting legacies of the Louisiana Purchase Bicentennial. She raised more than $150,000 to help the restoration of the Bauvais-Amourex House, built in 1792 at Ste. Genevieve and produced a self-guided tour pamphlet of the Creole Corridor on both sides of the Mississippi River for the stimulation of cultural tourism.

She was the founding president and is now Chairman Emeritus of Les Amis, a regional preservation organization that has worked effectively with the state of Missouri on many projects. There she created an endowment fund of $250,0000 to fund more public viewing hours and increased staffing. She has spearheaded many other fundraisers and programs, tours and symposiums; written a book of collected works on culture and the arts titled, The Scarlet Thread; and is a founding member of what is now the Regional Arts Commission and Missouri's Arts Council.

Elizabeth's newest book, published by Virginia Publishing Company, is titled "A Yankee in Creole Country: The Unfinished Vision of Justus Post in Frontier St. Louis", it will be available in mid November.