The next year , in Spokane , Wash ., Sonora Smart Dodd heard a sermon about Jarvis ’ s Mother ’ s Day , and she told her pastor that fathers should have a similar day honoring them .
Dodd was born in Arkansas in 1882 , daughter of Civil War veteran William Jackson Smart and his wife , Ellen . In 1889 , when Sonora was 7 years old , the Smart family moved from Marion , Ark ., to a farm west of Spokane , Wash ., according to a Wikipedia article about Dodd .
“ When Sonora was 16 , her mother died in childbirth with her sixth child ,” the article said . “ Sonora was the only daughter and shared with her father William in the raising of her younger brothers , including her new infant brother Marshall .”
After hearing about the Mother ’ s Day event , Dodd approached the Spokane Ministerial Alliance and suggested her own father ’ s birthday of June 5 as a day to honor fathers . The alliance chose the third Sunday in June instead because the pastors didn ’ t have time to write sermons by June 5 , according to another Wikipedia article .
Dodd ’ s Father ’ s Day service was celebrated June 19 , 1910 , at the YMCA in Spokane , Wash . It had some success but didn ’ t take off the way Mother ’ s Day did . President Woodrow Wilson proclaimed Mother ’ s Day the second Sunday in May in 1914 , and in 1916 he spoke at Spokane ’ s Father ’ s Day event . He wanted to make Father ’ s Day official too , but Congress resisted because they thought it would become commercialized — which is exactly what happened with Mother ’ s Day . President Calvin Coolidge called for all states to celebrate the day in 1924 .
Clint Kadel , Will , Alex & Nic
18 MoultrieScene JUNE 2022