Inspired during a semon at this church on Mother’s Day in 1909, Sonora Smart Dodd set out to pay homage to her father who became a single parent after her mother died during the birth of their sixth child. The following year, Spokane celebrated the first Father’s Day in June, the birth month of Dodd’s father. Within a few years, several other cities followed suit and by 1924, President Calvin Coolidge threw in his support.