In 1909, a Spokane resident named Sonora Louise Smart Dodd was inspired to dedicate a day to fathers while listening to a Mother’s Day sermon at a church.
Her father, William Smart, was a Civil War veteran who raised Dodd and her five younger brothers after her mother died during childbirth.
“The idea, I think, of having a single father in those years with six small children ... it was really important to her that he be recognized for all that he did,” Kirstin Davis, communications manager for the City of Spokane, told NTD Television.
A plaque in front of the house honoring Dodd reads: “‘He felt fatherhood was a lifelong task,’ Sonora Smart Dodd said, ‘and he never relinquished its duties and responsibilities until his death in 1919. Even after my brothers and I were married, he was mindful of his obligations for he was a golden rule type of father.’”
Dodd started a petition to create a day honoring fathers and, with the help of the Spokane Ministerial Alliance and the local YMCA, the Spokane mayor and the Washington governor signed proclamations to celebrate the first Father’s Day in June 1910.
After that, Dodd advocated for 60 years for Father’s Day to become a national holiday.
“She decided to make it a very promotional effort and partnered with businesses that would benefit from selling men’s items,” Davis said, “whether those are ties, or greeting cards, whisky—things that dads might appreciate.”
In 1966, President Lyndon B. Johnson declared the third Sunday in June to be Father’s Day. President Richard Nixon made the holiday permanent in 1972.
Dodd became known as the “Mother of Father’s Day.”
Now, Spokane celebrates Father’s Day just like everywhere else.
Davis’s birthday also falls in the third week of June. Before her father passed away, she used to celebrate it along with Father’s Day.
“[Father’s Day is] just honoring that relationship,” Davis said. “Usually there’s some really good food involved, and hopefully we get a nice day, and we can be outside and enjoy each other’s company.”
