Father's Day
"One father is more than a hundred schoolmasters." -- English Proverb
"My Dad, Marshall Winfiele, was the Town Marshall of Melville when I was young. My Dad was a strict dad, but I always knew he loved me and wanted the best for me. He passed away in 1965 and is buried in the Methodist cemetary." - Peggy Winfiele
"I watched a small man with thick calluses on both hands work fifteen and sixteen hours a day. I saw him once literally bleed from the bottoms of his feet, a man who came here uneducated, alone, unable to speak the language, who taught me all I needed to know about faith and hard work by the simple eloquence of his example." -- Mario Cuomo
"My dad, Joe, was born in Big Lake, La. and worked on tugboats and barges as a tankerman and diesel mechanic. Joe still lives in Big Lake, and will be 84 years young in July 2004." - Ray Daigle
"Be kind to thy father, for when thou wert young,
Who loved thee so fondly as he?
He caught the first accents that fell from thy tongue,
And joined in thy innocent glee." -- Margaret Courtney
"My daddy, Prince Adams grew up in Melville and attended Melville High School when it was also the elementary school during the 1920s." - Gary Adams
"Blessed indeed is the man who hears many gentle voices call him father!"
-- Lydia M. Child
FATHERS' DAY HISTORY
Sonora Dodd, of Washington, first had the idea of a "father's day." She thought of the idea for Father's Day while listening to a Mother's Day sermon in 1909.
Sonora wanted a special day to honor her father, William Smart. Smart, who was a Civil War veteran, was widowed when his wife died while giving birth to their sixth child. Mr. Smart was left to raise the newborn and his other five children by himself on a rural farm in eastern Washington state.
After Sonora became an adult she realized the selflessness her father had shown in raising his children as a single parent. It was her father that made all the parental sacrifices and was, in the eyes of his daughter, a courageous, selfless, and loving man.
Sonora's father was born in June, so she chose to hold the first Father's Day celebration in Spokane, Washington on the 19th of June, 1910.
President Calvin Coolidge, in 1924, supported the idea of a national Father's Day. Then in 1966 President Lyndon Johnson signed a presidential proclamation declaring the 3rd Sunday of June as Father's Day.
