50 years ago today - Feb 3, 1969

[David O. McKay]
... in a recent meeting [when] President Brown was away, in which it was decided pertaining to work for the dead that it would be permissible to seal a woman to more than one husband in cases where there had been children by more than one husband and it was not known which husband she preferred. The decision was that the woman could be sealed to her various husbands by whom she had children and thus the way would be provided so that the children born to these marriages could be sealed to their natural parents and do the temple work for their parents. ... President Brown said he did not feel to favor this decision. ... President [N. Eldon] Tanner reported that this entire question had been discussed by the First Presidency a short time ago [and] that Brother [Howard W.] Hunter's argument, with which he agreed, was that when we seal a woman to any man in cases of those who have passed away[,] it is arbitrarily done and we do not know whether this man was the woman's choice or not... He mentioned that our former practice was to seal this woman to her first husband unless it was known that she wanted to be sealed to one of her subsequent husbands... President Tanner further mentioned that President Smith had made the statement in writing that there will be a transference of sealings[,] and if that is true it would be simple to make the transfer according to the woman's choice. President Tanner asked me if I wanted to hold the matter up for the present and I said absolutely.

[David O. McKay diary, Feb. 3, 1969, in Anderson, Devery; The Development of LDS Temple Worship, 1846-2000: A Documentary History, http://amzn.to/TempleWorship]

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