Father's Day 2023: Story of Sonora Smart Dodd, daughter of Civil War veteran behind the special day

The world will celebrate Father's Day on 18 June 2023. Sonora Smart Dodd founded Father's Day in 1910, inspired by the incredible example of her twice-widowed yet devoted father. Dodd's father, William Jackson Smart, was a civil war veteran and a great father. Sonora hailed from Spokane, Washington, where she created the first day of devotion to fathers. Today, people call her the 'Chosen Daughter of Spokane.' Dodd was a businessperson, poet, artist, and Hollywood fashion maker. She was a woman way ahead of her time who pursued her passions far from home in Chicago. Moreover, she was a devoted daughter.

Betsy Roddy, Dodd's great-granddaughter and family historian, told Fox News, "She claimed all these achievements as a wife and mother who never lost her desire to grow and learn." Dodd gifted Roddy and other loved ones with books and always encouraged her family members. "She would inscribe them to 'Little Betsy' with this beautiful handwriting. She told everyone to be educated, and watch your words, words have power," Roddy added. Dodd's remarkable journey dates back to when only a few women could vote. Society did not welcome the notion of a day dedicated to fathers.

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Here's everything you need to know about Sonoro Smart Dodd, the founder of Father's Day.

Sonora Louise Smart & her father

Sonora Louise Smart was born on 18 February 1882, in Jenny Lind, Arkansas, to William Jackson and Ellen Victory Cheek (Billingsley) Smart. "I recall that Jenny Lind was a happy sort of place with lilac blooms, an orchard aflower, a crystal spring, and hickory, pecan and walnuts in autumn," she wrote in a letter dated 20 April 1950. Her father served with the First Arkansas Light Artillery of the Union Army during the Civil War. He had three children with his first wifeElizabeth. However, she died 13 years later.

In 1880, William married Ellen, who already had three children. They had six children together, and Sonora was their eldest child. According to Roddy, Steps, halves and wholes, they "laughingly" called the family of 12 children. Sonora was seven when the family moved to a soldier's homestead in Eastern Washington. However, Smart's second wife died in childbirth on 2 March 1898. Dodd's father instinctively took command of the sudden new responsibilities.

"It is not difficult to recall the twilight of an early March day at the turn of the century when bereavement came to us at the loss of our mother," Dodd said in an interview in 1964. "Father assumed the role of father-mother in the rearing of his six children. This role he performed with courage and selflessness until we were all in homes of our own," she added.

On 19 June 1910, Spokane celebrated Father's Day for the first time with church speeches and other activities around the city. Sonora Smart Dodd spent decades advocating for Father's Day. On 18 June 1932, the Spokesman-Review reported on events. After six decades of Dodd's advocacy, the US Congress finally enacted a joint Father's Day resolution on 28 December 1970.

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