In my research today I learned that Frank E. Hering, Notre Dame's first fulltime football coach (1896-98), whose activities in many national fields were familiar to his fellow Notre Dame men, was the recipient of additional honors on Sunday, May 10, 1931 in Indianapolis. The Fraternal Order of Eagles, who originally sponsored Mothers' Day through Mr. Hering's leadership, unveiled a tablet to him in the English Opera House, where, on February 7, 1904, he delivered the first address on record advocating a national observance of a day honoring the nation's mothers.

In Arlington cemetery, at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, simultaneously with the Indianapolis observance, Mrs. Virgil McClure, president of the American War Mothers, which organization had honored Mr. Hering as founder of Mothers' Day, read an address prepared by Mr. Hering.

Back in Indianapolis, Father John Cavanaugh delivered an address at the ceremony, and the inscription on the unveiled tablet read: ON THIS SITE, SUNDAY FEBRUARY 7,1904, THE FIRST KNOWN PUBLIC PLEA FOR A NATION-WIDE OBSERVANCE OF MOTHERS' DAY WAS MADE BY FRANK E. HERING, TEACHER, ORATOR, HUMANITARIAN, IN COMMEMORATION OF MOTHERS' DAY AND IN HONOR OF ITS BELOVED FOUNDER THE FRATERNAL ORDER OF EAGLES ERECTS THIS TABLET MAY 10, 1931.

And here, to laud the idealism of Notre Dame's "Father of Mothers' Day," one of his poems is reprinted:

MOTHER
The flowers that are put upon her breast
Will shed no fragrance when her heart is stilled. The praise we whisper when she lies at rest
Will bring no smile to lips forever chilled. Today, the petals of a wayside rose
Will lure away a multitude of woes.
                                             -By Frank E. Hering

To read previous installments of Herb's archive please click below:

September 1998
October 1998
November 1998

January 1999
March 1999
May 1999
July 1999
August 1999
October 1999
December 1999

January 2000
February 2000
March 2000

April 2000