Mother's Day founder Anna Jarvis, right, and her own mother and inspiration, left. The celebration of Mother’s Day as we know it now is generally credited to Anna Marie Jarvis in memory of her mother, who died on May 9, 1905. The first commemorative service was held at the Methodist Church in Grafton , West Virginia where Jarvis’s mother had been a Sunday school teacher 116 years ago today on May 12, 1907. The following year on May 10 the church, at Jarvis’s urging, expanded the service to include honoring all mothers and Jarvis’s friend, Philadelphia merchant prince John Wanamaker conducted a public observance in the auditorium of this store. Jarvis tirelessly dedicated herself to spreading the observance. She wro...