Marian McQuade in 1982 with children holding homemade Grandparents Day cards. Photo courtesy of Ruth McQuade.
Fun fact — the woman behind National Grandparents Day was a West Virginian. Marian McQuade, born in 1917, was the mother of 15 children and lived to see 43 grandchildren, 10 great-grandchildren, and 1 great-great grandchild before her death in 2008. McQuade drew from her experience with her own grandmother and mother as she took on various leadership roles in the state, focusing on support for older adults, including serving on the West Virginia Committee on Aging and the Nursing Home Licensing Board.
McQuade’s advocacy work expanded beyond West Virginia when she was appointed as a delegate to the White House Conference on Aging in the early 1970s. Throughout the following decade, she worked with senior citizen organizations to petition local political leaders, Congress, and presidents to have Grandparents Day recognized as a national holiday.
McQuade envisioned the holiday as an opportunity to highlight the importance of intergenerational relationships. Rather than a commercial holiday, she envisioned it more as a way to alleviate loneliness and recognize the value of the young and old spending quality time together. Having meaningful conversations between generations can provide guidance from life experience or an opportunity to hear different and fresh perspectives from a younger generation. Grandparents Day is a time to honor grandparents and surrogate grandparents as well as an opportunity to explore one’s roots and traditions. McQuade wanted the holiday to be celebrated with homemade cards, family gatherings, or by visiting a nursing home.
McQuade’s home state was her first success for the campaign, when West Virginia Governor Arch Moore signed a proclamation in 1972 to establish a Grandparents Day. Several other states soon followed with their own official support. McQuade’s persistence led the US Congress to pass legislation in 1978 for a national Grandparents Day. President Jimmy Carter signed it into law the following year and designated September 9, 1979, and the first Sunday after Labor Day in each succeeding year, as National Grandparents Day.
From President Carter’s 1979 proclamation:
Grandparents are our continuing tie to the near-past, to the events and beliefs and experiences that so strongly affect our lives and the world around us. Whether they are our own or surrogate grandparents who fill some of the gaps in our mobile society, our senior generation also provides our society a link to our national heritage and traditions.
We all know grandparents whose values transcend passing fads and pressures, and who possess the wisdom of distilled pain and joy. Because they are usually free to love and guide and befriend the young without having to take daily responsibility for them, they can often reach out past pride and fear of failure and close the space between generations.
I urge officials of Government at the national, State, and local levels, and of voluntary organizations to plan appropriate activities that recognize the importance and the worth of the 17 million grandparents in our nation. I urge all Americans to take the time to honor their own grandparents or those in their community.
On September 9, from 10-12, the Shepherdstown Public Library will be hosting a Grandparents Day event, co-sponsored by the Pack Horse Ford Chapter of the National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution. The public is invited to join in the activities, which will include card-making and a photo booth (for pictures you can send to grandparents).
An educator by training, Addison Reese enjoys researching the local history of Jefferson County. She works at the Shepherdstown Public Library and also serves on the Jefferson County Historic Landmark Commission (JCHLC). She can be contacted at Addison@ShepLibrary.org.
By Addison Reese