Everything needs an origin story — Mother’s Day as well — and its origins take it back to Grafton, West Virginia in the early 1900s. To wit:
In its present form, Mother’s Day was established by Anna Jarvis with the help of Philadelphia merchant John Wanamaker following the death of her mother, Ann Jarvis, on May 9, 1905. Jarvis never mentioned Howe or Mothering Sunday, and she never mentioned any connection to the Protestant school celebrations, always claiming that the creation of Mother’s Day was hers alone.[12]
A small service was held on May 12, 1907 in the Andrew’s Methodist Episcopal Church in Grafton, West Virginia, where Anna’s mother had been teaching Sunday school.[3] The first “official” service was on May 10, 1908, in the same church, accompanied by a larger ceremony in the Wanamaker Auditorium in the Wanamaker’s store in Philadelphia.[3]The next year the day was reported to be widely celebrated in New York.[13]
There’s more context here, here and here. The International Mother’s Day Shrine resides in Grafton, about 35 miles south of Morgantown:
If you’re seeing your mom tomorrow, this is what’s known as a “dinner table conversational option.”
