HAPPY FATHERS DAY FROM THE VAPORJOES NETWORK

There are two stories of when the first Father’s Day were celebrated.
According to some accounts, the first Father’s Day was celebrated in
Washington state in June of 1910. A woman by the name of Sonora Smart came up with the idea of honoring and celebrating her father while
listening to a Mother’s Day sermon at church in 1909. She felt as though
mothers were getting all the acclaim while fathers were equally
deserving of a day of praise.

Sonora’s dad was quite a man. William Smart, a veteran of the Civil
War, was left a widower when his wife died while giving birth to their
sixth child. He went on to raise the six children by himself on their
small farm in Washington. To show her appreciation for all the hard work
and love William gave to her and her siblings, Sonora thought there
should be a day to pay homage to him and other dads like him. She
initially suggested June 5th, the anniversary of her father’s death to
be the designated day to celebrate Father’s Day, but due to some bad
planning, the celebration in Spokane, Washington was deferred to the
third Sunday in June.

The other story of the first Father’s Day in America happened all the
way on the other side of the country in Fairmont, West Virginia on July
5, 1908. Grace Golden Clayton suggested to the minister of the local
Methodist church that they hold services to celebrate fathers after a
deadly mine explosion killed 361 men.

While Father’s Day was celebrated locally in several communities
across the country, unofficial support to make the celebration a
national holiday began almost immediately. William Jennings Bryant was
one of its staunchest proponents. In 1924, President Calvin “Silent Cal”
Coolidge recommended that Father’s Day become a national holiday. But
no official action was taken.

In 1966, Lyndon B. Johnson, through an executive order, designated
the third Sunday in June as the official day to celebrate Father’s Day.
However, it wasn’t until 1972, during the Nixon administration, that
Father’s Day was officially recognized as a national holiday.

… Now get outside and start BBQing!