40 years ago today - Aug 14, 1979-Tuesday

[Leonard Arrington]
Elder Durham has received a letter from the presidency of the Relief Society, asking us to do a study of the role of women in the Church during the 19th century and early 20th century. ...

I asked him to see if he could get permission for me to examine the George Q. Cannon diaries for the period up to 1877, when Brigham Young died. He said he would try to do that but might put it off for a month or two.19 I reported on the Richard Bushman manuscript, and on the request from [public relations employee] Jerry Cahill about a response to Sonia Johnson's paper to be given at the American Psychology Association meetings in New York. Elder Durham seemed to be very much in a hurry for some reason. Earl [Olson] was not present. I learned that Russ Ballard of the First Council of Seventy, who is the son of Melvin J. Ballard, Jr., the son of Melvin J. Ballard the apostle, and who is now the editor of the Ensign, is a grandson of [apostle] Hyrum [M.] Smith. Hyrum Mack Smith's oldest sister Geraldine [Smith Ballard] married Melvin J. Ballard, Jr., and is thus the mother of Russ.

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