A Tribute to Dad's Everywhere
The idea for creating a day for children to honor their fathers began in Spokane, Washington in 1909. A married woman and daughter by the name of Sonora Smart Dodd thought of the idea for Father’s Day while listening to a Mother’s Day sermon in her local church when she realized that in her own childhood, it had been her father, William Jackson Smart, a Civil War veteran, who had sacrificed raising herself and her five brothers alone, following the early death of her mother during childbirth. For her, the hardships her father had endured on their eastern Washington farm called to mind the unsung deeds of fathers everywhere.
Having been raised by her father, William Jackson Smart, after her mother died, Sonora wanted her father to know how special he was to her. It was her father that made all the parental sacrifices and was, in her eyes, a courageous, selfless, and loving man. Sonora’s father was born in June, so she chose to hold the first Father’s Day celebration in Spokane, Washington on the 19th of June, 1910. Mrs. Dodd proposed a local Father’s Day celebration and received strong support from the town’s ministers and members of the Spokane YMCA.
As newspapers across the country who were already endorsing the need for a national Mother’s Day carried stories about the unique Spokane observance, interest in Father’s Day increased. However, Father’s Day was not as quickly adopted as Mother’s Day had been. Members of the all male Congress feared that a move to proclaim this new holiday official might be interpreted as a self indulgent, and Father’s Day remained an unofficial day of observance, although it’s popularity was still gaining recognition throughout the country.
In 1916, President Woodrow Wilson personally observed the day with his family. Nearly a decade later in 1924, President Calvin Coolidge recommended that every state, on it’s own accord, should hold their own Father’s Day festivities and observances. President Coolidge wrote a memo to the nation’s Governors that read “The widespread observance of this occasion is calculated to establish more intimate relations between fathers and their children, and also to impress upon fathers the full measure of their obligations.”
But it was not until 1926 when a National Father’s Day Committee was actually formed in New York City and three decades more until Father’s Day was recognized by a Joint Resolution of Congress in 1956. Finally, in 1972, President Nixon established a permanent national observance of Father’s Day to be held on the third Sunday of every June.
And so Father’s Day was born in memory and gratitude by a daughter who thought that her father and all good fathers should be honored with a special day just like we honor our mothers on Mother’s Day. So make sure to do something special for your father to let him know that all of his thankless deeds are truly appreciated. Whether you bake him a cake, make breakfast in bed, or take him to his favorite restaurant for a nice dinner, dad will always appreciate the sentiment.
Happy Father’s Day!
