A new look at a traditional family relationship

The first American Father's Day celebration was held on July 5, 1908, in Fairmont, West Virginia, only about 20 miles from the location of the first Mother’s Day celebration in Grafton. The event was the emotionally charged response to a mine explosion that had occurred one year earlier, killing more than 300 men, most of whom were fathers. Hundreds of grieving widows were left behind, along with more than 1,000 fatherless children.

Mrs. Grace Clayton, a woman who had lost two children and understood family loss well, was moved to establish an annual holiday to honor and remember all fathers for their great contributions to their families. But while this Father’s Day observance is mentioned in at least one historical document, it has all but been forgotten, and it is a separate event that occurred one year later that is most often referred to as the “beginning of Father’s Day.”

At a Mother’s Day celebration almost a year later, a young woman named Sonora Louise Smart was thinking about the sacrifices her father had made while shouldering the responsibility for his six children after his wife had died eleven years earlier. ... read more >>