Accounts of the inception of Father’s Day point to one woman: Sonora Smart Dodd. She came up with the idea while listening to a Mother’s Day sermon, in the company of her father, at Central Methodist Church in 1909. Sonora was primarily raised by her father, William Smart, so it is no surprise that she was bothered that mothers received a day of praise while fathers fell by the wayside. Dodd had plenty of reasons to give her father praise. William Smart was a Civil War veteran and cared for his six children after his wife died during childbirth.

Sonora, a prominent member of the Spokane community, took the idea of Father’s Day to the local YMCA. The Spokane YMCA, along with the Ministerial Alliance, endorsed Dodd’s idea and helped spread the word by celebrating the first Father’s Day in 1910.

Father’s Day, however, did not gain national prominence until 1924 when President Calvin Coolidge recognized Father’s Day and encouraged all states to do the same. In 1966, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed an official proclamation calling for the third Sunday in June to be recognized as Father’s Day. Six years later, President Richard Nixon signed an additional proclamation permanently observing Father’s Day on the third Sunday of June. While Father’s Day has risen to national, and even international, prominence, Spokane will forever be remembered as the holiday’s birthplace.