I love reading about successful people, where they came from and how they accomplished what made them famous. One of my favorite success stories and one of the least known is Sarah Josepha Hale. She lived from 1788 to 1879 and was America's first woman editor of a magazine.. As a writer she published over fifty volumes of work in her life and was one of the earliest campaigners for women's education. She was the first person to start day nurseries for working women and also the first to suggest public playgrounds..
Her career took off when she suddenly became a widow when she was pregnant with her fifth child. With five children under eight to support she published her first book of poems. In her second book, she wrote the famous nursery rhyme, "Mary Had A Little Lamb."
That was the beginning of her long and distinguished career as a writer and editor, but it wasn't her most extraordinary accomplishment. She is known as "The Mother of Thanksgiving." During her life Thanksgiving was celebrated in different states at different times. She believed that Thanksgiving should be a National Holiday that everyone in America would celebrate together in November and it would bring the country together. She wrote columns and editorials and many letters to Presidents of The United States. Her campaign spanned 40 years until Abraham Lincoln declared Thanksgiving a national holiday in 1863. It took seventy-nine more years for Congress to officially make the fourth Thursday of November the national holiday.
One person can make a difference So this Thursday, give thanks for your family, health, and our country and also for "The Mother of Thanksgiving."
Happy Thanksgiving.
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