OakIsland-NC.com would like to wish all the Fathers a Happy Father’s Day! The idea for creating Father’s Day, a day for children to honor their fathers, was first thought of by a woman named Sonora Smart Dodd. Sonora was listening to a Mother’s Day sermon in 1909 in Spokane, Washington when the idea for Father’s Day came to her.
Her father, William Jackson Smart, had raised her after her mother died and Sonora wanted to let father know how special he was to her. 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.
A National Father’s Day Committee was formed in New York City in 1926. Father’s Day was finally recognized by a Joint Resolution of Congress in 1956. In 1972, President Richard Nixon established a permanent national observance of Father’s Day to be held on the third Sunday of June.
So Father’s Day was born in memory and gratitude by a daughter who thought that her father and all good fathers should be honored with a special day just like we honor our mothers on Mother’s Day.