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Sunday, May 8, 2016

HAPPY MOM'S DAY

MOTHER'S DAY 2016

Knoxville, Tennessee (JFK+50) Today we celebrate "Mother's Day" in the United States on this 2nd Sunday of May.    One of the earliest suggestions for a day to honor mothers in our country came in the form of a proclamation issued in 1870 by Julia Ward Howe.

It was Anna Jarvis of Grafton, West Virginia, however, who made this day possible.  Ms. Jarvis proposed a day in which each American family would honor their own mothers.

The first Mother's Day service was held on May 10, 1908 and in 1914 President Woodrow Wilson proclaimed it a national holiday.  Ironically, Ms. Jarvis came to regret her efforts because of the commercialization of the holiday.*


Anna Jarvis
Photo from ambassadors.net


Honoring JFK's Mother, Mrs. Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy

Boston, Massachusetts (JFK+50) Mrs. Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy (1890-1995) was born in Boston, the eldest child of John and Mary Fitzgerald.  She married Joseph P. Kennedy, Sr. on October 7, 1914.  The Kennedys had nine children, JFK being the second.

In 1987, in celebration of his grandmother's 97th birthday, Representative Joseph Kennedy II said that she was "the magnet that always pulled us together as a family.  Grandmother's so strong and  just a tremendous inspiration to all of us".

Rose Kennedy died at the age of 104 on January 22, 1995.