A Mother’s Day Speech

Family Names, the Fraternal Order of Eagles, and the Founding of Mother’s Day

Family Names

Usually a name is chosen to honor an ancestor, relative, or friend, a Saint or notable person, or merely because we like the sound of it. Our grandfather and his siblings were given unique names. Some have a fairly clear family connection, some can be discerned with informed speculation, and some remain a mystery.

A Self-Made Man

Our maternal great-grandfather William Leon Grayson (1870-1941) was the only child of a working class couple in postbellum Savannah, Georgia. William was a determined, gregarious, and energetic man, rising in business from produce clerk to partnership with his employer to Superior Court Clerk; In the militia from private soldier to regimental colonel to National Commander of the United Spanish War Veterans; In community organizations to Masonic Lodge Worshipful Master and National Grand Worthy President of the Fraternal Order of Eagles; In government from citizen committees to city alderman to Chief of Staff for the Governor of Georgia. William and Lillian Melvin Turner (1872-1936) had seven children.

William and Lillian’s Children

• Lynne (1893-1961) was apparently not given a middle name. Her first name is unique in our family tree. Two of her daughters were given “Grayson” as middle names.
• William Turner (1897-1899) died of dysentery before his second birthday.
• Spence Monroe (1900-1990) – William’s 4th great-grandparents were Andrew Monroe II (1661-1714) and Elinor Spence (1665-1713). Spence’s son was named William Leon II.
• Dorothye Thomassen (1903-1961) – The strange spelling of her name is intriguing, and her middle name is thus far a mystery. Her daughter Dorothye Grayson Comly was known as “Gray” to friends and family.
• Leon Harman (1906-1993), our beloved maternal grandfather, was named after physician and family friend George L. Harman (1871-1933). Dr. Harman served as a Savannah city alderman alongside William from 1903-1907.
• Edith Hering (1912-1968) – The man honored by her middle name is the subject of this article. Her son was named James Monroe Parsons after his ancestor, the U.S. President.
• William Morris (1915-1989) – His middle name is also thus far a mystery.

The Fraternal Order of Eagles

William and his sons were members of the Savannah chapter (“Aerie”) of the Fraternal Order of Eagles (F.O.E.), an international fraternal organization founded in 1898. William served as national F.O.E. Grand Worthy President in 1915-16. In 1930 our then-23 year-old grandfather Leon, a newly minted lawyer and recent graduate of the University of Georgia, was selected to speak at the annual Savannah F.O.E. gathering.

A Mother’s Day Celebration

The July 1930 issue of “The Eagle Magazine” reported, “The Mother’s Day service which Savannah, Ga., Aerie holds each year proves a genuine drawing card…. Approximately three thousand recently crowded into the city auditorium…. Chase S. Osborn, former governor of Michigan, delivered the chief address. Leon Grayson, young son of Colonel Grayson, spoke on the achievements of the Order. Though it was Leon’s first platform appearance, ex-Governor Osborn was moved to write, ‘What a magnificent address! It was the masterpiece of the occasion.’ “

Excerpts of Leon’s Speech

“Today is the twenty-sixth anniversary of an idealism on which we have gathered to celebrate and honor mother,” Leon began. “On Feb. 7, 1904, in the English Opera House in Indianapolis, Ind., the theater was crowded, those assembled members of an aerie of the Fraternal Order of Eagles. The speaker was a young English professor of Notre Dame, Mr. Frank E. Hering, later to become Grand Worthy President of our national fraternity. Mr. Hering … flung the seed… and his creative inspiration became a reality…. One day has been set aside each year by the congress of the U.S. in praise and memory of mother.”

Leon went on to applaud the vision and efforts of Frank Hering, to chronicle how Congressional recognition was finally achieved in 1914, and to list the ways the F.O.E. is “increasingly protecting and assisting mother and home.” Leon concluded, “As we look back at the small but inspiring beginning in the opera house in Indiana, and at the preeminent position [Mother’s Day] occupies today, we can readily see that it has been transformed from an uncertain medley into an epic of noble and rhythmic beauty.”

The Father of Mother’s Day

Frank E. Hering (1872-1943) was also a self-made man. A Pennsylvania native, he played professional football then coached football, basketball, baseball, was athletic director, and taught at Notre Dame. In addition to his recognition as “The Father of Mother’s Day,” Frank is also considered to be “The Father of Notre Dame Football.” He and his wife were noted humanitarians, prominent in the South Bend, Indiana community. Frank was the long-time editor of “The Eagle Magazine.” Upon the death of his friend and fellow Past Grand Worthy President Colonel William Grayson in 1941, Frank Hering wrote to our grandfather: “Dear Leon, I am sincerely appreciative of your thoughtfulness in writing me. I am enclosing two copies of the eulogy that I prepared for the May issue of THE MAGAZINE. I found it difficult to write as my heart felt. But, to outsiders, that would have seemed a bit overdone; so I had to write with a restrained pen.”

And so as we continue to honor our mothers each May, may we also look back in time to the idealism and creative inspiration of the men of the Fraternal Order of Eagles that had a part in the founding of Mother’s Day. In the words of Leon Grayson, it has become “an epic of noble and rhythmic beauty.”