[Deathwatch] Marjorie Pay Hinckley, wife of LDS Church President, 92

[Deathwatch Central]

Okay, you are about to get a ton of obits.  No, a celebrity-packed
airplane did not go down, a loyal reader sent them in - Ed.

Marjorie Hinckley dies

Beloved wife of LDS Church president — 'the lodestar of their family' —
dies at 92

By Carrie Moore and Tom Hatch
Deseret Morning News

      Marjorie Pay Hinckley, wife of LDS Church President Gordon B.
Hinckley, died at 5:05 p.m. Tuesday at her home, surrounded by family,
of causes incident to age. She was 92.

Marjorie Pay Hinckley, shown in 2003, had been in poor health since a
January trip to Ghana. She died Tuesday at her home; her funeral will
be Saturday in the Tabernacle.
      Funeral services are scheduled for 11 a.m. Saturday in the
Tabernacle on Temple Square. At press time, no decision had been made
regarding a viewing.
      Members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
worldwide learned of her failing health on Sunday during the final
session of the church's 174th Annual General Conference. During closing
remarks, President Hinckley said his wife had collapsed "with
weariness" on their way home from a trip to Ghana in January.
      President Hinckley dedicated the church's most recently completed
temple there and said his wife accompanied him on to the island of Sal,
then on to St. Thomas in the Caribbean before she became ill.
      "She's had a difficult time ever since. She is now 92 years old,
a little younger than I am," he said. "I guess the clock is winding
down, and we do not know how to rewind it. It is a somber time for me."

      The weekend conference was the first time in her husband's 46
years as a general authority of the church that she had not accompanied
him to the meetings, President Hinckley said.
      Known to Latter-day Saints worldwide as a small woman with a big
heart and a warm sense of humor, she often accompanied her husband on
church business and had traveled with him to many parts of the globe,
conversing comfortably with both dignitaries and ordinary people.
During meetings he conducted, he often called her to the podium to
speak. Their banter put audiences at ease and endeared her to many.
      In a press release from the Office of the First Presidency,
President Hinckley identified his wife as "the lodestar of their family
(who) gently guided her children with faith, intelligence and humor.
Her happiest role was that of a supportive wife and mother (who) made
good use of humor to settle many of life's difficulties. She was often
heard to say, 'The only way to get through life is to laugh your way
through it.' "
      An avid reader and family history enthusiast, she encouraged her
children and grandchildren to pursue higher education and "delighted in
the opportunity to share stories of their (her ancestors') faith from
her research."
      She is survived by her husband; five children: Kathleen Barnes
Walker (M. Richard); Richard G. (Jane); Virginia Pearce (James); Clark
B. (Kathleen) and Jane Dudley (Roger); 25 grandchildren and 41
great-grandchildren.
      In lieu of flowers, the family suggests contributions to the
church's Perpetual Education Fund or the Marjorie Pay Hinckley Chair in
Social Work at Brigham Young University.
      Sister Hinckley was born Nov. 23, 1911, in Nephi, the first child
of Phillip LeRoy and Georgetta Paxman Pay. She had four sisters and two
brothers, but one brother died in infancy. The family moved to Salt
Lake City in 1914, and she attended East High School, graduating in
1929. She then went to work at the Owens Illinois Glass Co. performing
secretarial duties.
      Sister Hinckley came from a strong LDS ancestral background that
formed her own deep faith. Her maternal grandfather, George Paxman,
died at age 24 of injuries sustained while working on the Manti Temple.
Her paternal grandmother, Mary Goble Pay, walked, as an 11-year-old
girl, across the Great Plains with a handcart company during the
Latter-day Saint migration to the West.
      Serving in the LDS Church herself, she started teaching Sunday
School at age 17 and held a variety of church assignments in Young
Women, Primary and the Relief Society.
      President Hinckley first noticed her while both were growing up
in the Liberty Stake's 1st Ward in Salt Lake City. He lived across the
street from her home, and in 1930, he asked her out on their first
date. It was the start of an association, occasional at first, then
interrupted by Elder Hinckley's LDS missionary service to Great
Britain, that continued in the years that followed and was shared in
many parts of the world.

Marjorie Hinckley smiles as President Gordon B. Hinckley praises her at
a region conference in Provo last year.

Jason Olson, Deseret Morning News
      Following his mission and during his employment at LDS Church
headquarters, they were married in the Salt Lake Temple on April 29,
1937. Elder Stephen L Richards, then of the Quorum of the Twelve,
performed the ceremony. They then moved into their first home, a family
retreat in East Millcreek, at that time a quiet, rural area of the Salt
Lake Valley.
      In 1941, they built a home nearby, clearing the area and planting
numerous trees, shrubs and flowers.
      "Marjorie is a real Latter-day Saint," a longtime associate of
Sister Hinckley said in an LDS Church News interview. "She always has
time to help those in need of help. I have never heard her say an
unkind word about anyone or to anyone. She makes all people welcome in
her home. She is an outstanding mother and teacher."
      "I first saw her in Primary," President Hinckley said, reflecting
on his marriage. "She gave a reading. I don't know what it did to me,
but I never forgot it. Then she grew older into a beautiful young
woman, and I had the good sense to marry her.
      "She was beautiful, she was light-hearted and happy, she was
bright, and at the same time she was serious about the important
things."
      "The greatest judgment he has ever shown in his entire life,"
President Boyd K. Packer, acting president of the Quorum of the Twelve,
says, "is the judgment he showed in marrying Marjorie Pay. You cannot
know him unless you know her — the tender, guiding, patient influence
she has been in his life and in that of their children."

President Gordon B. Hinckley and Marjorie Hinckley visit China — one of
their many global trips together.

Gerry Avant, Deseret Morning News
      "Marjorie was 'the girl next door' when we were growing up,"
recalled Ramona H. Sullivan, President Hinckley's younger sister, in a
church magazine interview. "Only in this case it was the girl across
the street. And she was very pretty. The thing I remember most about
Marge in those early years is how polished and impressive she was, even
as a young girl, in giving readings and performances in the meetings
and activities of our old 1st Ward. All the other kids would just sort
of stand up and mumble through something. Marjorie was downright
professional. She had all of the elocution and all of the movements. I
still remember those readings she gave."
      Sister Hinckley received some outstanding praise from Elder L.
Tom Perry of the Quorum of the Twelve during the April 1995 general
conference, the day after her husband was sustained as church
president.
      "With all the pressures of church service thrust on the Hinckley
family, Sister Hinckley has always maintained a balance between her two
eternal callings — that of a wife and mother," Elder Perry told the
Sunday afternoon congregation.
      "Much of what we learn as members of the church is by example,"
he explained in speaking of the examples set by modern-day prophets and
their wives.
      "The sweet relationship of President and Sister Hinckley offers
both the men and women of the church a marvelous example to observe and
emulate," he continued.
      "Much will be said, written and recorded about President Hinckley
during the time he presides over the church. Much less will be recorded
about his dear companion. What an example she has been and will
continue to be to the women of the church and to all the world. She is
such a loyal, supportive companion to our president."
      In speaking directly to Sister Hinckley, Elder Perry said: "You
are an inspiration to all of us. You are diligent in seeking after the
truths the Lord has revealed for the growth and development of
ourselves here in mortality. Your desire to know these truths has kept
you busy studying the gospel. When the opportunity avails itself, you
have regularly signed up for institute classes to deepen your
knowledge. That knowledge is clearly in evidence as you speak and touch
the saints. It is especially important when you stand before a group of
full-time missionaries. Here you are at your best. How you inspire them
and how they respond to your instructions."
      In his address on President Hinckley's spiritual capacity in the
October 1997 conference, Elder Russell M. Nelson of the Quorum of the
Twelve said, "While I focus on President Hinckley, Sister Hinckley also
should be included. They . . . have long been one in spirit, while
maintaining their individuality. They do not waste time pondering the
past or fretting about the future. And they persevere in spite of
adversity."
      She participated with missionaries in cottage meetings and
tracted while accompanying President Hinckley in his travels.
      How did her grandchildren see her? An article in the April 1997
New Era mentioned that each grandchild pauses as he or she thinks of
her, then every one of them breaks into a big grin before they say a
word.
      "We always say," Jodi Hinckley said, "that we love Grandpa so
much because he married Grandma. Everybody loves her so much."
      "She never stops smiling," James Pearce added. "Never."
      "There's something magical about her," Ann Hinckley said. "She's
never in a grumpy mood. She's always happy. The whole way she looks at
the world is so real and unpretentious. She is a fun grandma."
      Just before Christmas, the article said, she had a special
grandchildren's Christmas party. The table was set with fancy dishes
and dinner served — and only grandchildren were invited. Another
trademark was the individual notes on postcards, written to her
children and grandchildren during her travels with President Hinckley,
asking about the details of their lives and affirming her love for
them.
      While their five children were growing up, she described her
house as "Grand Central Station, with each member of the family busy
with a full slate of activities and Mother trying to tie the schedules
down to fairly regular family associations."
      In describing family vacations, she said on the video of
President Hinckley released during the April 1995 general conference:
      "We had a lot of fun as a family. Every summer we'd get into
whatever car we had and start out for who knows where. We just went
down the highway, and by the time the children were grown, I think we'd
seen the states of Utah and California several times over."
      In between church assignments she shared with her husband, Sister
Hinckley found time not only for gardening but also for good books,
taking a class or two at the University of Utah and teaching literary
or social science lessons on a ward or stake basis for the Relief
Society.
      In addition to being an avid reader, Sister Hinckley also wrote
three inspirational books, rich with encouragement and expressions of
her faith. Her most recent book, "Is this what I was born to do?:
Mother's Day Booklet," was released last month. According to an online
review at deseretbook.com, it tells the biblical story of Esther and
the encouraging words of Mordecai, who asked, "Who knoweth whether thou
art come to the kingdom for such a time as this?"
      She also wrote "Small and Simple Things" and "Mothering: Everyday
Choices, Eternal Blessings."
      As a general authority's wife, she had the opportunity to bear
testimony to many at home and in foreign lands.
      "I believe my testimony was anchored when, as a child, I attended
general conference with my parents in the Salt Lake Tabernacle. I
thrilled as I listened to the vibrant voice of President Heber J. Grant
bearing his testimony to the membership of the church," she said.
      President Hinckley explained how his wife's testimony affected
others in August and September 1995 when she accompanied her husband on
a busy 10-day visit to England and Ireland.
      "Whenever she goes in these conferences and speaks, people enjoy
listening to her," President Hinckley said in a Church News interview
near the end of the trip. "She has a quiet kind of folksy way of saying
things in an informal tone and speaks of the problems of the people in
a way that they believe that she's been through what they're
experiencing. They love to hear her. It has been a wonderful thing to
see the response to her when she speaks."
      After he was sustained to the Twelve, President Hinckley wrote in
a memo to Elder Mark E. Petersen: "I have been blessed with a great
wife. You know her. She was a bright and capable girl when she was
growing up and has done a great service in the church and elsewhere,
having served as ward Primary president, MIA president and in the
Relief Society presidency over a number of years. No one ever had a
better companion."
      In February 1996, she received the Exemplary Womanhood Award from
Brigham Young University. She received the Pioneer Heritage Award in
July 1997 and the Distinguished Service to Humanity Award in April
1998. She also received the Utah Heritage Award from the
Utah-California Women later that year.
      In April 2001, she and her family were honored by the Daughters
of Utah Pioneers, and a week later she and her husband received
honorary doctorates from Utah Valley State College. In April 2003, BYU
established the Marjorie Pay Hinckley Chair in Social Work and Social
Sciences. The chair was established to help the school focus on the
family through research and education, to expand learning by lectures,
to increase community involvement in family issues and to provide
service.
      In tribute to his wife on Sunday, President Hinckley said of her,
"We've walked together, side by side, all these many years, co-equals
and companions through storm and sunshine."

Material taken from a Church News interview, May 23, 1964; Deseret News
files; the June 1995 Ensign; the April 1997 New Era; and Church News
files.