40 years ago today - Jun 8, 1978-Thursday

[Leonard Arrington]
Elder Larson said that ... President Grant say on one occasion that some people were saying that J. Reuben Clark, Jr., was effective president of the Church at that time because of President Grant's age and disabilities. President Grant reacted negatively to this, insisted that he have the last word on all policy matters, and boasted that there were more new and fresh ideas generated by him during those last years than at any time in his life.

President Grant used to go riding in his car every Sunday afternoon. He hated to go to Sacrament meetings Sunday afternoon and evening. He would ask Brother Larson to drive him, and if they saw anybody he knew on the porch of the house or in the street he would invite them to go riding with him. On one such occasion they saw Ruth May Fox, president of the Young Women of the Church, and President Grant personally invited her to go riding with him, assuming she would be thrilled to do so. Sister Fox was a little indignant about the request and said that she was going to Sacrament meeting and she was surprised that he would be trying to take people away from Sacrament meeting by inviting them to ride with him instead of going where they ought to be going. ...

Elder Pinnock chose to travel tourist class with me rather than first class. He said that while there is a general rule that General Authorities ought to travel first class, he preferred to travel tourist class. For one thing, it was cheaper for the Church. For another he usually found better company; finally, by going in the no-smoking section he usually had better protection from cigarette smoke than in first class where anybody chooses to light up wherever he is regardless of the rules. ...

Somebody (possibly Elder Pinnock) told me that Steven L. Richards's brother was a high councilman in Hunter, Utah. About 1970 he died and they had his funeral.9 Somebody afterwards said that he had seen the deceased person at the family prayer. He mentioned this to another member of the family, and they decided that they should tell the mortician. They went with the mortician to the coffin and opened it and found the body gone and the clothes the body was wearing neatly folded. There was no explanation for all of this. Apparently, they concluded, there was a resurrection at the time. ...


[Source: Confessions of a Mormon historian : the diaries of Leonard J. Arrington, 1971-1997, Gary James Bergera, editor, Signature Books, 2018]

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