Happy Grandparents Day 2012

In 1978, President Jimmy Carter declared the first Sunday after Labor Day as National Grandparents Day.

According to www.grandparents-day.com, the impetus for a National Grandparents Day originated with Marian McQuade, a housewife in Fayette County, West Virginia.

Her primary motivation was to champion the cause of lonely elderly in nursing homes. She also hoped to persuade grandchildren to tap the wisdom and heritage their grandparents could provide. 

Click here to see President Barack Obama's 2012 proclamation making today National Grandparents' Day. 

Thanks to www.grandparents.com, here are a few fun facts about grandparents some of which may surprise or amaze you.

• The average age of a U.S. grandparent is 48, and more than half are Baby Boomers.
• The world’s youngest grandmother is believed to be Rifca Stanescu, a 23-year-old from Romania.
• Here are a few celebrities who had grandkids at an earlier age:
  • Loretta Lynn (age 29)
  • Whoopi Goldberg (age 34)
  • CeeLo Green (age 35)
  • Kiefer Sutherland (age 38)
  • Brett Favre (age 40)
  • Pierce Brosnan (age 44)
  • Jim Carrey (age 48)
• The record for most living descendants belongs to Pennsylvanian Samuel S. Mast who, when he died in 1992 at age 96, had 11 children, 97 grandchildren, 634 great-grandchildren, and 82 great-great-grandchildren, for a grand total of 824 direct relations.
• Tenth U.S. President, John Tyler was born in 1790 and has two grandsons, both in their 70s, who are still alive and kicking today.
• Abraham Lincoln had a grandfather named Abraham Lincoln, who was also shot and killed. He was tending his fields in Kentucky at the time, when a passing party of American Indians took aim.
• According to a Grandparents.com survey, 38% of today's grandparents have intimate relations at least twice a week, 10% have tattoos, and 7% have tried recreational drugs (or admitted to it, anyway).
• About 86% of you still bake cookies regularly.
• One study found that kids are 50% less likely to be injured in cars driven by their grandparents than by their parents. 
• About 7% of U.S. kids are being raised by their grandmothers and grandfathers. Here are some people raised by their grandparents:
  • Maya Angelou
  • Carol Burnett
  • Eric Clapton
  • Bill Clinton
  • Bobby Darin
  • Willie Nelson
  • Jack Nicholson
  • Barack Obama
  • Oprah Winfrey
• Of those celebrities, Jack Nicholson, Eric Clapton, and Bobby Darin grew up believing their grandmothers were actually their birth mothers.
• Lots of grandparents are pretty accomplished themselves. Check out these famous grandparent/grandchild pairs:
  • Newsman Anderson Cooper is the great-great-great-grandson of shipping tycoon Cornelius Vanderbilt.
  • Singer Olivia Newton-John is the granddaughter of Max Born, a Nobel prize-winning atomic physicist.
  • TV chef Giada De Laurentiis is the granddaughter of legendary movie producer Dino De Laurentiis.
  • Actresses Drew Barrymore, Anjelica Huston, and Bridget Fonda all have grandfathers who were also famous actors.

What will you do today to celebrate or remember your grandparents? Tell us in the comment box below where you can also share your favorite memory or a bit of advice they gave to you.

Email a photo of your grandparents to us and we will add it to our grandparents photo gallery which we will update throughout the day. 

Happy Grandparents Day!