Did you know that this year marks the 100th anniversary of Father's Day? It all started with a young woman from Spokane, Washington.Sonora Smart Dodd was just 16 years old when her mother passed away, leaving her father, William Jackson Smart, to raise six young children. He did such an admirable job that upon hearing a Mother's Day sermon at Central United Methodist Church in 1909, Sonora was spurred to propose a similar honor for fathers. With the help of Reverend Dr. Conrad Bluhm (her pastor at Old Centenary Presbyterian Church,) the Spokane YMCA and the Ministerial Alliance, Sonora organized the first Father's Day on June 19, 1910. Sermons honoring fathers were given throughout the city.
This special day did not receive national recognition for many more years. In 1924, President Calvin Coolidge celebrated Father's Day and encouraged the states to follow suit. In 1966, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed a proclamation for Father's Day to be celebrated on the third Sunday in June and for flags to be flown that day on government buildings. In 1971, President Richard M. Nixon signed a proclamation officially marking the third Sunday in June as Father's Day.
What began as a young woman's wish to honor her own father's dedication to his family, along with recognizing all fathers , has become a 100-year-old, worldwide, annual celebration of fathers, grandfathers, uncles and father figures.
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