On May 21, 1957, the General Assembly adopted an official state toast.The toast was first read by the Rev. Walter W. Moore in May 1904 in Richmond at a banquet hosted by the North Carolina Society of Richmond. Moore’s toast came from “The Old North State,” a poem, written by Leonora Monteiro Martin, which was reportedly commissioned for the event.Martin, a writer who had lived in North Carolina, was living in Richmond with her husband, Harry Culver-Martin at the time.