Ralston Purina Hero Medal

Well the Iola coin show last month was a good one. As a medal collector prowling the aisles however as with most coin shows I did not find a lot but what I did find is worth mentioning here. My only medal purchase at the show was this Ralston Purina Hero medal. The obverse has a woman bestowing a wreath on a kneeling man. The reverse is named to a “Jimmy Easton” and dated July 4, 1921. I have never heard of this medal so I contacted the Ralston Purina company via e-mail asking about it and still await a reply. Checking “Google”, my favorite internet search engine, I found two mentions of the medal being awarded in 1915 to children for life saving. This makes sense since the company was big in children’s breakfast foods at the time. Next I Googled the name Jimmy Easton and found that he was a big name professional soccer play in 1921. His obituary has no mention of his being awarded this medal so I still can not confirm that the name on the medal was also the famous soccer player. Therefore the search continues. Not all of the interesting medals are military.