To the moon, Dolores!

MANATEE COUNTY - Remember the American flag that Neil Armstrong put on the moon 40 years ago this summer? It was actually sewn by a Bay Area woman.

Back in 1969, Dolores Black was sewing flags in Milwaukee, at the largest flag company in the United States.

In the months before Apollo 11 sent a crew to walk on the moon, Dolores' boss approached her one day.

"He said, 'You heard astronauts are going to take a flag to the moon?' I said, 'Yeah, I heard about it.' He said, 'Would you like to do the honors?' I said, 'You think I'm going to say no?'," Dolores recalls.

And on July 20, 1969, Neil Armstrong made history as the first man to walk on the moon. No one was watching closer than Dolores Black.

"All I had my eyes on was that flag," says Dolores.

And all the way back on Earth, Dolores had a secret about that flag that no one else knew.

"Right before I sewed this webbing," Dolores says, pointing to a photo of the flag on the moon, "that's where I signed my name."

When word leaked out around the office, she got a call from her boss.

"The first thing he said was, 'Dolores, you didn't.' And I knew what he was talking about," she says.

Dolores didn't get in trouble, and now, all these years later, any time there is a clear night, her grandson teases her about her contribution to American history.

"He'll say, 'Grandma, keep looking at that moon because I see that flag!' He's 25 years old and he still tells everybody, 'When there's a full moon, look up, because the flag is up there.' He's proud of me," Dolores says.

Proud of her, even though most people never knew the person who made the flag that was put on the moon.

In honor of this local celebrity, Manatee Community College has an art exhibit dedicated to Dolores Black, called "Black Flag on the Moon." The exhibit runs through June 18 and will run for an addition four weeks starting in late August.