Don't Forget Dad!

Are you getting ready to show your dad how much you appreciate what he does for you and your family? You have a few weeks to do something really special. Sunday, June 19th is a day to honor our Fathers. The first official Father’s Day was celebrated 101 years ago on June 19th, 2010. Though it is primarily a secular holiday, the first modern Father’s Day was celebrated in a church. There seems to be two possible origins for the establishment of the annual holiday we now celebrate.

It is believed the first Father’s Day celebration took place July 5, 1908 at Williams Memorial Methodist Episcopal Church South, in Fairmont, West Virginia. It may have been Grace Golden Clayton who suggested her pastor perform a service following a mine explosion in nearby Monongah to celebrate and honor fathers. In that explosion, 361 men lost their lives, most of them where fathers and many of them recent Italian immigrants.

Mrs. Sonora Smart Dodd of Creston, Washington, a town near Spokane, is said to be the driving force behind the establishment of Father’s Day as legal holiday. While sitting through a newly recognized Mother’s Day church celebration in May of 1909; Mrs. Dodd thought how could she honor her father who on his own raised his children? William Jackson Smart, a Civil War veteran was left with five children and a new born baby after his wife died during childbirth.

The following year, Mrs. Dodd petitioned Spokane, Washington city leaders for a day to celebrate fathers. She suggested June 5th, her father’s birthday. With not enough time to make arrangements for the celebration, the first official Father’s Day was scheduled and celebrated June 19, 1910.

President Woodrow Wilson felt so strongly about the day, in 1916 he traveled to Spokane to speak at Father’s Day service to mark the special day. Moving forward to 1966, President Lyndon Johnson officially declared the third Sunday in June, each year, Father’s Day. Though support was widespread, it wasn’t until 1972 when President Nixon established the third Sunday in June as a national day for us to officially honor our fathers.

What began over a hundred years ago to honor the devotion and love of a father for his children is still celebrated every year. Don’t forget your father on June 19.