... AND WHO THEN TRIED TO STOP IT

It would be nice if the story ended there. But history tends to be awfully messy at times. And this is one of those times.

Jarvis was delighted when her Mother’s Day idea was finally adopted nationwide. But very quickly, she began having second thoughts as merchants began marketing special Mother’s Day gift ideas.

Florists made sure they had plenty of carnations on hand — folks wore a white carnation if their mother was dead or a pink carnation if their mother was still alive. Stores stocked candy, clothing and other nice Mother’s Day gifts. Greeting card manufacturers sold Mother’s Day cards. Restaurants served Mother’s Day specials.

It was all too much, Jarvis thought. By 1920, she was livid and issued a press release.

“What will you do to rout charlatans, bandits, pirates, racketeers, kidnappers and other termites that would undermine with their greed one of the finest, noblest and truest movements and celebrations?” she asked. Never mind the fact that the owner of an enormous Philadelphia store had helped her birth the movement.

Jarvis urged people to boycott flower shops and greeting card companies. She filed for and obtained trademarks for “Mother’s Day” — with an apostrophe between the “r” and the “s” — and for “Second Sunday in May” and filed lawsuits in a vain attempt to curtail merchandising efforts.

In 1925, she was arrested for disorderly conduct for disrupting a Mother’s Day celebration. In 1935, she criticized First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt for setting up a fundraising effort involving high maternal and infant mortality rates on Mother’s Day.

Jarvis was placed into an asylum in 1944 at age 80. She died four years later, having spent every penny on legal battles to halt the Mother’s Day celebration she had birthed.