Sarah Josepha Hale (1788-1879)
Filed under the name Sarah · August 19, 2026
Sarah Josepha Hale is a favorite of mine because she wrote 'Mary Had a Little Lamb,' which I have sung to more third graders over 38 years than I could ever count, usually to calm a classroom down on a rainy indoor-recess day. But the thing that really deserves the credit is her patience — she campaigned for nearly 40 years, writing letters and editorials, to get Thanksgiving established as a national holiday, and she finally succeeded in 1863. Forty years! I taught the same grade for 38 and thought that was a long stretch of steady work. Hale outlasted me by two, on one single cause, without ever once giving up on it. I always tell my students that most good things worth having take longer than you want them to. Hale is Exhibit A. Next time your family sits down to a Thanksgiving table, say a little thank-you to the writer lady who spent four decades making sure that table existed at all.