Flag Day: East Tennessee couple builds wooden American flags by hand

SEVIERVILLE, Tenn. — Dennis and LaNelle Fawver don’t wave a fabric flag. They build them by hand out of wood.

Six years ago, the couple made their very first wooden American flag — not to sell, but to give to Dennis’s younger brother, who had just been diagnosed with stage four cancer.

“So, we were in the middle of making our very first one when we got a call that my younger brother had stage four cancer and he was about to pass,” Dennis Fawver said.

They finished that flag, put his name on it and a cancer awareness ribbon and took it back to him for a surprise.

“As soon as we gave it to him, you know, he just smiled and got bright and seemed happy,” Dennis Fawver said.

His brother, Randy Behrends, later passed away. But that moment of joy sparked a business, and Dennis says it still drives every flag he makes.

“It just shows patriotic. I mean, just red, white, and blue,” Dennis Fawver said.

The Fawvers make flags for every branch of the military, law enforcement, medical workers, corrections officers and even fully custom flags with names and sayings.

For LaNelle, a former nurse, the reward is different — it’s the moment someone unwraps one.

“I just like seeing people’s faces when they get them. We make a lot of birthday presents, a lot of anniversaries, Father’s Day presents. That’s a biggie for us. And to see the dads and the reactions on their faces when they see it, that’s the best part. I enjoy making them happy when they see. They get something that means something to them,” LaNelle Fawver said.

That joy — the same joy his brother showed — is what keeps Dennis going.

“So that kind of inspired us like, well, if he liked it that much, you know, and other people commented. So we just started making them and would give them away to friends and family,” Dennis Fawver said.

The Fawvers sell their wooden flags at the Great Smoky Mountains Flea Market and online.