‘The Salt Lake Tribune, Sunday, May 1, 1958 crusade, with a ‘surance | she had a clerk’s wh. Philadelphia life incompany. Soon she gave this up, and devoted her life to Mothers Day and to caring for a younger sisi Elsinore, who was. blind. —the ‘mother whose memory lars in gift a. with 55 milBy. Cynthia Lowry | Bodih of ae: own rapitiag i. Soon the family home overyears before, she was deter- lion families spending” an aver-. Anna was so determined- to. flowed with her correspondence, Associated Press Writer of $16 each, honoring honor. When the family lived mined to establish a national age On a bright: Sunday 50 years. and she bought the house next and holiday honoring the nation’s: ‘mothers, — (grandmothers ago, the sermons of almost evdoor to hold her files. One way in West Virginia at the end of mothers—particularly .her. own. mothers-in-law. ery Philadelphia - church: conor another,. the small inherithe Civil War, Mrs. Jarvis was = popular}— To Anna Jarvis, however, the Paradoxically, the cerned a single subject: mother| suecess.of the idea turned Anna} nation’s merchants turned distressed at the way the con- tance from her aeoely., was dishood. sipated. Jarvis into a es Scene ‘Mothers Day into a bonanza, flict had split families. She orIt was the. first formal, organized a “Mothers’ Friendly As Mothers Day became bigrecluse, 7>. and she spent her own modest ganized observance: of Mothers} In the halt’ century since fortune trying to keep the day Day” inviting both Union and ger and more important, Miss Day, held on: May. 10, 1908. It disappointment grew Mothers Day was first observed within the religious and ideal- Confederate veterans to gather Jarvis’ has now grown into an imby a few churches, it has grown | istic bounds which. she had set with their families in ceremo- ‘Gradually she retreated from portant holiday; proclaimed aninto a holiday which the Na- for it. Asa result, when she nies in Pruntyville in an effort the world. She rarely left her nually by the chaastonnl of ~ | home, her~ telephone number tional Retail Merchants Assn, | died in 1948, she had been liv- to heal the scars. } United States. yee a calls a “powerful sales- produc- ing on the charity of acquaintBeginnings of the modern was unlisted. oe ay ances in a sanitarilum outside of Mothers Day followed Mrs. JarIt is an institution in more. ing event renee Her principal interests were ‘Vis’ death in Philadelphia In to Christmas. Peis than 40 _— ‘countries: as Philadelphia. her blind sister and toning 11905, On May 9, 1907—the secwell. ‘ | ‘THE NATIONAL dominates | She was 84, ‘deaf, blind— ond aniversary of her mother’ S|. -her mother’s grave. Mothers boy's is tives the on the observance of Mothers and convinced _ her crusade ‘death — Anna held memorial}. a Elsinore died. in- 1944, and idea of a militant, _sharp- Day estimates that, when the ‘was a failure. es ae own home, Then shortly afterwards it was found tongued and ‘sentimental Spin- books. are closed. ‘on Sunday’s|— that Anna. Jarvis herself was mae i the. of. eeninded, ster of 44, Anna M. Jarvis. observance, it will have pro- ~ Perhaps the germ ‘life. long in desperate straits—blind, deaf Geen extravagantly ¢over the duced more than: 87 3 million. dol- came from Anna Jarvis’ m t ( russde for a national and inter- and penniless. Acquaintances “o— Nx | raised some money and had her {moved to a-_ sanitarium. She died on Nov. 24, 1948, Mothers | Day. now is bigger than ever. It’s ironic. that Anna Rrote ta ae baneanuind Jarvis, responsible for it all, died 4 legion —-clergymen, officials, without pope for ne whole politicians, congressmen, edu- affair. cators, editors and even the -'te j aa) White House, Within a year,|~ i | Philadelphia’s churches ha da} @ | fallen into line. Soon governors fa of various states were agreeing — | to an annual observance. | ™| Then Congress approved the} | idea of an annual Mothers Day | —on the second Sunday in May, Miss Jarvis’ choice of a date. In 1914, President Woodrow Wil- : | son proclaimed the first official : | Mothers Day. Resolutely turning away from the fact that the public enjoved | giving gifts on Mothers Day,| Miss Jarvis began to fight commercialization, and tried to take on the jewelers, the florists, the confectioners and the. greeting ; card people who, she felt, were Ss her project. | “When she started one pe