History of Fathers Day

Father's Day is celebrated on third Sunday of June.

Sonora Dodd, of Washington, first had the idea of a "father's day." She thought of the idea for Father's Day while listening to a Mother's Day sermon in 1909.

Sonora wanted a special day to honor her father, William Smart. Smart, who was a Civil War veteran, was widowed when his wife died while giving birth to their sixth child. Mr. Smart was left to raise the newborn and his other five children by himself on a rural farm in eastern Washington state.

After Sonora became an adult she realized the selflessness her father had shown in raising his children as a single parent. It was her father that made all the parental sacrifices and was, in the eyes of his daughter, 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.

President Calvin Coolidge, in 1924, supported the idea of a national Father's Day. Then in 1966 President Lyndon Johnson signed a presidential proclamation declaring the 3rd Sunday of June as Father's Day. In 1972, President Richard Nixon established a permanent national observance of Father's Day to be held on the third Sunday of June. Coming almost sixty years after Mother's Day had been proclaimed a National day of observance.

 

Quotes for Fathers

Victoria Queen of England "None of you can ever be proud enough of being the child of SUCH a Father who has not his equal in this world-so great, so good, so faultless. Try, all of you, to follow in his footsteps and don't be discouraged, for to be really in everything like him none of you, I am sure, will ever be. Try, therefore, to be like him in some points, and you will have acquired a great deal."

William Shakespeare "It is a wise father that knows his own child."

Bob Dylan American folksinger (b.1941) "Come mothers and fathers Throughout the land, And don't criticize What you can't understand”

Abraham Lincoln "My father taught me to work; he did not teach me to love it."

Rodney Dangerfield American Comedian (1921-2004) "I'm so ugly - My father carries around a picture of the kid who came with his wallet”

Henry Ward Beecher Liberal US Congregational minister (1813-1887) "We never know the love of our parents for us till we have become parents.”

Lillian Hellman American Playwright (1905-1984) "My father was often angry when I was most like him.”

Aldous Huxley English Novelist and Critic (1894-1963) "My father considered a walk among the mountains as the equivalent of churchgoing.”

Alexander "I am indebted to my father for living, but to my teacher for living well."