Sonora Dodd first proposed her Father’s Day idea in 1909. Dodd wanted a special day (much like Mother’s Day) to honor her father, William Smart. Smart, a Civil War veteran, single handedly raised Dodd and her five siblings on a farm in rural Washington, after his wife died giving birth to their sixth child. Dodd’s father was born in June, so she chose June 19, 1910 to hold the first Father’s Day celebration in Spokane.
