West Virginia leader in honoring parents, grandparents

West Virginia is responsible for Mother’s Day, Father’s Day and Grandparents Day around the country. All three began in the Mountain State and spread to other states and then nationally.

National Grandparents Day – the first Sunday after Labor Day, Sept. 13 this year -- was founded in Oak Hill in 1978 by Marian McQuade and continues to be a testament to love and devotion we as West Virginians feel for our families.

Mother's Day began in 1908, when Anna Jarvis held a memorial for her mother at St Andrew's Methodist Church in Grafton.

In 1908 Grace Golden Clayton had her pastor, Robert Thomas Webb, create the first Father’s Day in honor of the more than 500 Monongah coal miners killed in the 1907 twin mines explosions.