SPOKANE, Wash. – Did you know a Spokane resident created Father’s Day in America? The daughter of a widower was responsible for making this special day a national holiday.
According to the City of Spokane, Sonora Smart Dodd, a local resident, initiated the tradition. Dodd, raised by a widower, was inspired by Mother’s Day sermons at Central Methodist Church. She sought to honor fathers like her own, William Smart, a Civil War veteran who single-handedly raised Sonora and her five brothers after his wife’s death during childbirth.
Sonora successfully petitioned leaders from the Spokane Ministerial Alliance and the local YMCA to support her cause. With growing support, Spokane’s Mayor and Washington’s governor signed proclamations marking the inaugural Father’s Day on June 19, 1910.
For the next 60 years, Sonora tirelessly advocated for Father’s Day to gain national recognition. 1966 President Lyndon B. Johnson officially recognized the third Sunday in June as Father’s Day. Just six years later, President Richard Nixon established Father’s Day as a permanent holiday.
The Sonora Smart Dodd House was added to the National Register of Historic Places.
