The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
THE DAUGHTER WHO WORKED TO CELEBRATE MOTHERHOOD ...
The first official Mother’s Day celebration was held in Grafton, West Virginia, 115 years ago: On May 10, 1908, the second Sunday of that month.
Anna Jarvis was born in Grafton in 1864. She attended college in Stanton, Virginia, and began teaching school there in Grafton. But after her father died in 1902 she moved her mother and herself in with relatives in Philadelphia. There,
Jarvis began to think about all the things her mother had done for her and how adult children seemed so preoccupied with their own families that they neglected their mothers.
Jarvis’ mother died on May 9, 1905. Grief-stricken, Jarvis decided to do something about her devotion to her mother. She pulled together a group of friends and civic leaders and announced she wanted to create an annual celebration to be called Mother’s Day on the second Sunday of May of each year.
The idea was received warmly. A Philadelphia businessman — John Wanamaker, the country’s leading clothing merchant — supplied financial backing to the movement.
Jarvis decided the place to launch Mother’s Day was back in her hometown, so she talked the superintendent of Andrews Methodist Church in Grafton into holding special services. At the conclusion, Jarvis handed out flowers to each mother and child: A carnation, which had been her mother’s favorite.
The movement quickly went national. The
House of Representatives passed a resolution calling for a national Mother’s Day observation but the resolution stalled in the Senate when a Midwestern senator complained: “Might as well have a Father’s Day. Or a Mother-in-law’s Day. Or an Uncle’s Day.”
Jarvis then launched an enormous letter-writing campaign, lobbying politicians, newspaper editors and religious and business leaders to support Mother’s Day. Cities began to celebrate on the second Sunday of May. Then states passed resolutions making it official.
Finally, on May 8, 1914, President Woodrow Wilson signed a proclamation declaring the second Sunday in May as Mother’s Day.