I have been guided to turn my great-great-grandmother Grace B. Davis’ poem ‘Sometime’ into a video. It is from her book of poetry called ‘Overtones’ from 1958. This poem is one of my favorites because it describes so beautifully what life will be like after The Event.
Grace was a pretty well-known person during her time and her best friend Sonora Dodd (AKA Mrs. John Bruce Dodd) helped establish Father’s Day here in the United States:
(ABC News)
“The national day honoring dads was started by a woman who was raised by a widower. Sonora Smart Dodd’s father, William Smart, raised her and five brothers after their mother died during childbirth.
While listening to a Mother’s Day sermon with her father at the Central Methodist Church in 1909, Dodd was bothered that there wasn’t a day to honor her civil war veteran father who raised her and five younger brothers alone.
The YMCA of Spokane, Washington, and the Ministerial Alliance endorsed Dodd’s idea of Father’s Day and held a celebration in 1910. Dodd wanted the celebration to be held on June 5, her father’s birthday, but planning difficulties pushed the first Father’s Day celebration to Sunday, June 19, 1910.
As Dodd’s idea gained momentum across the country, two National Father’s Day committees were formed, one in Virginia in 1921 and one in New York City in 1936.
President Woodrow Wilson sanctioned the idea of celebrating Father’s Day in 1913 and visited Spokane to join the celebration in 1916. President Calvin Coolidge supported the idea in 1924, as well. In 1957, U.S. Senator Margaret Chase Smith from Maine introduced a bill to create a federally proclaimed day writing:
“Either we honor both our parents, mother and father, or let us desist from honoring either one. But to single out just one of our two parents and omit the other is the most grievous insult imaginable.”
President Lyndon Johnson signed a presidential proclamation declaring the third Sunday of June as Father’s Day in 1966. President Richard Nixon established a permanent national observance of the day in 1972.
She married Spokane businessman John Bruce Dodd and had one son, John “Jack” Bruce Dodd, Jr. In 1937, she became a part owner of the Ball & Dodd Funeral Home in Spokane where she worked as the vice president for 30 years….”
Her work was featured in countless magazines and a few large books titled ‘Who’s Who in [Music/Poetry etc]’. She is in there with Judy Garland, Bing Crosby, Vladimir Horowitz, Louis Armstrong, Roy Rogers, Artur Rubenstein, Dmitri Shostakovich, Frank Sinatra, Miles Davis and more.
Sonora even wrote her foreword in the poetry book I obtained. To see them better just click on either picture:
Hope you all enjoy the video and wishing you all much love!
Beautiful 🙂 Thank you XO