The Origin of Father's Day

In 1909 a woman named Sonora Smart Dodd thought of the idea of a day to honor fathers while listening to a Mother’s Day sermon. She wanted a way to let her father, William Smart, know how special he was to her. William 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. In the eyes of his daughter, he was seen as a courageous, selfless, and loving man.

In 1909, Mrs. Dodd approached her own minister and others in Spokane about having a church service dedicated to fathers on June 5, her father's birthday. That date was too soon for her minister to prepare the service, so he spoke a few weeks later on June 19th. From then on, the state of Washington celebrated the third Sunday in June as Father's Day. Children made special desserts, or visited their fathers if they lived apart.

President Calvin Coolidge, in 1924, supported the idea of a national Father's Day in the United States. Then in 1966 President Lyndon Johnson signed a presidential proclamation declaring the 3rd Sunday of June as Father's Day. President Richard Nixon signed the law which finally made it permanent in 1972.