California Commemorates Mothers

 One of California's most famous mothers, aged thirty-two. Father is a native Californian. Destitute in pea picker's camp with seven children, Nipomo, California, because of the failure of the early pea crop. When Florence Leona Thompson died (1983) in Scotts Valley, Calif. at the age of 80 inscribed on her tombstone was: "FLORENCE LEONA THOMPSON Migrant Mother – A Legend of the Strength of American Motherhood."

100 years ago on May 9, 1914 President Woodrow Wilson declared the nation would officially celebrate Mother's Day on the second Sunday in May. The idea of a day for mothers came about in the 1800s, conceived by several women as a time to celebrate peace. By 1911 individual states were honoring Mother's Day so Wilson's request to Congress for a national day of recognition to express love and reverence for "the mothers of our country" was readily approved. When the bill passed mothers didn't have the right to vote, however, and President Wilson had a battle on his hands trying to provide women equal rights.

Eight months after the Mother's Day bill passed, a suffrage voter rights bill lost in the House of Representatives. Three more attempts during the next several years all failed. On May 21, 1919 the President called a special session of Congress, and a bill introducing the amendment was approved. Although it was also successful in the Senate a month later, 36 states were required to ratify it. Finally on August 18, 1920, Tennessee's ratification of the the Nineteenth Amendment made it the law of the land.

In Saudi Arabia a royal decree issued in 2011 will let women vote in Saudi elections in 2015 for the first time. Vatican City, which honors a host of "Mothers" working on the church's behalf will continue to be the only country that allows men, but not women, to vote.