An essay published in Magnolia Tribune remembers the author’s father on Father’s Day and revisits the holiday’s origins, the piece says.
The essay notes that the term “father” appears 260 times in the Old and New Testaments and traces Father’s Day to a 1910 celebration in Spokane, Washington, the piece says. It adds that Mother’s Day became a federal holiday by 1914 and that President Richard Nixon signed legislation in 1972 designating the third Sunday in June as a permanent national observance of fatherhood.
The author writes that his father was not perfect but was a devoted husband and father who worked a job he disliked to provide for his family, ate meals with them, coached baseball teams and attended track meets from high school through college. The essay says the father provided for the author’s mother after his death and was remembered by friends as a good friend and a man who stayed involved in causes despite frequent defeats.
The essay describes the father as a first-generation evangelical who taught Sunday school and whose adult conversion to Christianity, the author writes, “radically changed his family line.” The author also says his father fought what he saw as theological decline in his denomination and endured political and moral setbacks but continued to “keep plugging” and to remain “in the fight,” as the essay puts it.
The author says he did not fully appreciate his parents while growing up and has gained perspective as a father of six adult children. The piece concludes with a quote the author attributes to one of his sons: “I like the Jerry Friedeman legacy,” and the author says he hopes his father can see the results of his influence, the essay adds.
Jon Ross Myers is the executive editor and publisher of the Mississippi News Network, Mississippi's largest digital only media company. He can be reached at editor@tippahnews.com
