David O Mckay Blue Key Hotel Utah 1956
David O. McKay, Mormon Leader, is Dead at 96
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January 19, 1970
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SALT LAKE CITY, Jan. 18— David O. McKay, president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter‐day Saints, died today at the age of 96. Physicians said the Mormon leader died of acute congestion of the heart at 6 A.M. after having been in a coma for six hours.
All members of his family, except a daughter, Mrs. Lou Jean Blood, were present at his residence in the lintel Utah, to which he had been increas ingly confined during the last two years. Until stricken by severe heart and kidney failure in the last week, however, he had received official guests and conducted church affairs in his hotel apartment overlooking the park‐like area in which Mormon string tli es are cen tered.
A funeral service will be held at noon Thursday in the Mormon Tabernacle. Buildings on the 10‐acre Temple Square are being draped in black and church institution will close ??. death of Mr. McKay.
"Today the Mormon Church has been deprived of a distin guished and great leader. And America has lost a foremost citizen and human being.
?? and inspiration to his 3 million followers and to the nation he loved and served so well."
Until a successor has been chosen, the Council of Twelve Apostles will he in charge of church affairs. It is expected that, following long‐standing precedent, Joseph Fielding Smith, president of the Coun cil of Twelve, who is 93, will then he chosen to succeed Mr. McKay as president of the church.
The death of its long‐time president is not expected to bring any significant changes in the policies or activities of the Latter‐day Saints. Waterloo), N. Y., on April 6, 1830.
During Mr. McKay's admin istration, which began April 9, 1951, when he was 77 years old, the Mormon church expe rienced its greatest growth both in membership and in in fluence. Much of this was at tributable to the ceaseless ex ertions of Mr. McKay, the warmth and humanity of his personality and the breadth of his approach to religion. He captured the esteem and affec tion not only of his own peo ple, but also of people of other faiths. In the opinion of many discerning Mormons he had more genuine charisma than any of their leaders but Joseph Smith.
A man of simple eloquence, quite in contrast to the thun dering of Brigham Young or the dryness of his immediate predecessors, Mr. McKay per sonified missionary suasion. He appealed to the heart, offering hope and salvation to those who sought the solace of his faith. Indeed, many Mormons, asked to characterize Mr. Mc Kay's chief contribution to the church, called him "the mis sionary president."
Before he became president, Mr. McKay was active in the mission field; and from 1951 until he was nearly 95, he traveled the world in support of missions. The doubling of the church membership in this period reflected his zeal. Much of this astonishing growth was outside the United States—in Europe, Latin America, New Zealand and the South Seas. The expansion tended to uni versalize the Mormon church, changing it from a small, Utah centered group to a large and respected global institution.
Greatest Accomplishment
In an interview for this ar ticle in the fall of 1968, Mr. McKay himself ranked as his greatest accomplishment "the making of the church a world wide organization."
This had been brought about, he said, by, among other things, "visits to every foreign mission; meeting leaders of na tions, ambassadors and other government officials; personally greeting all members of the church and investigators: hold ing meetings in every mission: and stimulating the work of local members and mission aries."
Mr. McKay met the church's growth by providing temples for its new members. Five were built in his presidency — in Britain, Switzerland, New Zea land, Los Angeles and Oakland —bringing the total to 13. Pre viously there had been eight temples—four in Utah, includ ing the spired granite structure in Salt Lake City, and one each in Arizona, Idaho, Canada and Hawaii.
These temples, not to be confused with the thousands of houses of worship, are of cen tral importance in the Mormon religion, for in them must be performed such sacred ordi nances as endowment (a pledg ing of oneself to the church) and sealing in marriage. At the endowment rites, Mormons re ceive special toga‐like under garments, which they wear for life.
The temples built under Mr. McKay's direction served fur ther to extrovert the church, since it was no longer neces sary for Mormons to travel to the United States or Canada to participate in the highest rites of their faith. The church head quarters remained anchored in Salt Lake City, of course; but the outlook from Temple Square was no longer so completely parochial.
Frictions Diminished
In the process of univer salizing and humanizing his church, Mr. McKay man aged to mute many of its past frictions with the Roman Cath olic and Protestant communi ties. His approach was person al rather than theological, broad rather than sectarian. Reflecting this was his reply to a question about the most important moment of his life.
"The feeling of such peace and satisfaction and love for all God's children, which comes late in life after more than 80 years of work in the church and travels among peo ple of all lands. My one great desire for them is that they may have peace and happiness in this world and the world to come."
Apart from having a person ality that radiated confidence and goodwill, Mr. McKay was able to exercise his leadership through his unusual position in the church, at whose apex he stood. His authority derived, according to church doctrine, from a revelation to Joseph Smith in 1843, in which God pronounced that "there is nev er but one on earth at time" on whom the full power of the Holy Spirit is conferred, and that one is the head of the Mormon church.
Faithful Mormons helieved that Mr. McKay was a prophet of God, a man whose worth and actions were divinely in spired and a man, moreover capable of receiving revela Lions. At east one prophecy was credited to Mr. McKay As related by Alvin R. Dyer one of his Counselors. Mr. Mc Kay said in 1960, "The time has come for many thousand of people in Europe to accept the teachings of the church."
"And," Mr. Dyer reported An interview in 1968. "in twe years 50,000 persons joined the church. This was in direct ful. fillment of Mr. McKay's proph ecy."
?? tions such as those produced by Joseph Smith and Brigham Young were attributed to Mr. McKay, church leaders said that revelations took place ev ery day. "The direction of God's people is dependent on revelation," Mr. Dyer asserted. He ascribed to revelation de cisions to build temples, to re vise the church welfare plan and to reinstitute a program to strengthen family bonds. Other revelations, said Joseph Field ing Smith, another Counselor, had to do with church assign ments "according to the will of the Lord."
Mr. Dyer expressed the view that revelations through Mr. McKay, although not reduced to writing, were perfectly val id. Divine inspiration, he re marked, could take many forms. He recalled several tem ple meetings on church matters in which Mr. McKay had but tressed his presentations by adding, "Thus sayeth the Lord."
Mr. McKay's patriarchal au thority, which was reinforced by tradition, extended from the spiritual into the temporal realm. In both areas he was accounted by many Mormons liberal, at least in the first years of his administration. One instance of his liberalism was a positive attitude toward Ne groes, according to Dr. Sterling G. McMurrin, a Mormon and head of the graduate school at the University of Utah.
Basing its position on an ob scure passage in the Book of Abraham, written by Joseph Smith, the Mormon church, while accepting Negroes as com municants, bars them from the priesthood, to which all other Mormon men are eligible. This discrimination has disturbed many Mormons, especially in the intellectual community, who have sought to accommo date the church to the 20th century.
Dr. McMurrin was among those who discussed the prob lem with Mr. McKay in 1954 Recalling the conversation in 1968, the educator quoted the Mormon leader as declaring that "there is no doctrine that holds Negroes under a divine curse," but that rather it was a matter of practice, "which we expect to change."
No Change Made
The change did not materi alize. Dr. McMurrin explained this by saying that Mr. McKay, for all his: humaneness, did not think in terms of laying out rules for the Mormon institu tion. "He was not sophisticated about social forces," Dr. Mc Murrin said. He added that as Mr. McKay aged he was more and more surrounded by con ventional and conservative ad visers.
Again, early last week, In the midst of the current dispute over this Mormon policy to ward Negroes, Dr. McMurrin recalled the interview he had in the spring of 1954 with Mr. McKay.
In his robust years Mr. Mc Kay was a firm, even stubborn, executive who sometimes ig nored his Counselors, albeit after patiently listening to their advice. Six‐feel, one‐inch tall and weighing 200 well‐propor tioned pounds, he was an im posing figure. His eyes were hazel, and they seemed to many to he extraordinarily penetrating. "He could look right through you," it was said.
He gave off an air of corn mand that called implicitly for obedience. "Never give an or der that's not obeyed, or can not be obeyed," he once told his children. "And if you give an order, he certain that it's followed through."
His general manner, how ever, was more genial filar stern, his smile more ready than his frown. He was pre pared In overlook some of the rigidities of church pt a( tire New converts for for example ??. give up smoking; he tolerated coffee‐drinking in Mormons who felt they needed the stimu lant; he encouraged freedom of speech and opinion in church circles; and he was accessible to almost anyone who wanted to talk with him.
Mr. McKay put in a formi dable working day. Rising usu ally at 4 A.M., he was in his sparely furnished office on the first floor of the gray granite church headquarters building at 5:30. He sat in a plain leath er swivel chair, and his desk was an oblong, glass ‐ covered table, at which he received vis itors. With an interruption for lunch (his preference was a beefsteak, rare) and a short nap, he dispatched religious and temporal business until early evening. He dined with his wife and some church offi cial or a member of his family and retired early.
Wide Range of Business
The range of business that passed through his hands was enormous — from the selection and assignment of church per sonnel to the location of a Federal office building in Salt Lake City; from decisions on church investments to religious education; from the affairs of the church ‐ owned Beneficial Life Insurance Company to a those of the church ‐ operated Hotel Utah; from bills before the Utah Legislature to a speech at a church conference.
Miss Clare Middlemiss, his secretary for more than 30 years, kept a daily diary that ultimately filled a large book case. One entry from Jan. 25, 1957, related Mr. McKay's con cern lest Mormons not take polio vaccine. "I have learned," he wrote, "that some of our church officials are advising members not to take the polio vaccine and to rely wholly on faith. I made it clear that the Lord expects us to do every thing we can to take advantage of all the improvements and discoveries [of medicine] and only when we have done all we can do we go to the Lord and rely upon His help."
Other diary entries recorded conversations with legislators over public policy and requests of Mr. McKay "to pass the word" on the church's stand on various proposals. In Utah, with 70 per cent of the popu lation Mormon, the church po sition carried preponderant weight. Although Mr. McKay was not a heavy‐handed the ocrat, he did flex the church's muscle on such issues as oppo sition to liberal liquor statutes and support of so‐called right to‐work laws.
A plan to sell whisky by the drink was easily defeated in a Utah referendum after Mr. Mc Kay had inveighed against it. Utah also banned the union shop. This was an extension of Mormon belief in the doctrine of free agency, by which man is considered to have a choice whether to accept God's teach ings. Applied in the temporal sphere, the belief militates against compulsory union mem bership, an ingredient of the union shop.
Critics of Mormon policy in this area have said that the union shop ban reflects the church's close alliance with conservative business interests. Critics have also charged that the ban is responsible in part for low wages in the state. Utah, they point out, is 36th in the Union in per capita in come. Its figure of $2,604 (in 1968) compares with $3,969 for Connecticut, which ranks first, and with $1,896 for Mississippi, which ranks 50th.
Mr. McKay's church was it self enormously wealthy. Its income was, however, a close ly guarded secret, although some estimates put it at $1‐ million a day. Some of the money came from investments as diverse as a cattle ranch in Florida and an equity in The Los Angeles Times. Some came from its members, who gave 10 per cent of their gross in come to the church. Not all Mormons tithed, but for most it was a sacred obligation, the fulfillment of which was essen tial for admission to a temple.
If church income was high, so was its outgo, for Mr. Mc Kay and his colleagues spent generously on missions, on ed ucation and on buildings, while taking nothing for themselves in salary. Mr. McKay received, for example, his expenses and that was all. The tradition of selfless sacrifice for the church was one into which Mr. McKay was horn.
His ancestry was Scottish Welsh, and his paternal grand parents, William and Ellen Oman McKay, were among the first in the British Isles to he converted to Mormonism by missionaries dispatched from Salt Lake City. In 1849, and for almost a century thereaf ter, the church sought to! strengthen itself in the United States by encouraging converts to immigrate to Utah and its vicinity. Converts were ob tained then by "tracting" (a more sophisticated system was instituted by Mr. McKay), which involved knocking on doors and proselytizing any body who seemed willing.
William McKay and his wife and their four children came to the United States in 1856, selling all their possessions to pay for the trip. After reach ing the Mormon settlement in Iowa, they walked a thousand miles across the plains and mountains to Ogden, Utah.
Also converts, David O. Mc Kay's maternal grandparents, Thomas and Margaret Evans, came from South Wales and settled in Ogden. William's son David married Thom as's daughter Jeanette, and their first son was David Oman McKay, born on a farm in Huntsville, near Ogden, on Sept. 8, 1873. This was four years before the death of Brigham Young.
The farm, which Mr. McKay maintained until his death, shaped his early years, gave him a lasting interest in horse manship (he was an excellent rider) and outdoor life, and was the place he retired to meditate from time to time. The rural values of enterprise and hard work and coopera tion were those he prized.
"The individual is the most important element in our so ciety," he said often, adding:
"There can be no progress without individual leadership. Too many say, 'Let the Govern ment help us,' but that's not the way mankind has pro gressed.
"Rather we progress by hav ing leaders who start on new courses that men follow. We must strike out and be indi viduals. Everyone must be a free agent—to be able to think and choose for himself."
David had his first introduc tion to responsibility and lead ership as a boy of 8, when his father spent two years as a missionary in Britain and left the farm nominally in his eldest child's charge., (In Mormon households the father is the patriarch and in his absence the oldest male child carries the burden.) This habit of au thority, learned young, persist ed in Mr. McKay when it came to his own family.
Fond of the Classics
While herding cattle and performing other farm chores, David found time to read the English classics, for which he developed a lifelong fondness and from which he could quote, even in old age, long swatches. Robert Burns was a favorite, as was Shakespeare.
The boy attended public schools in Huntsville and then Weber Stake Academy (later Weber College), of which his father was a founder. He be gan a career as a teacher at the age of 20 as principal of the Huntsville grade school. A year later, tb qualify for a state teaching certificate, he en rolled for three years at the University of Utah, where he played on its first football team and was president of his class and its valedictorian when he graduated in 1897.
This period of Mr. McKay's life coincided with Federal per secution of the Mormon church, which was begun with the Edmunds Act in 1882. The persecution was aimed both at the Mormon practice of plural marriage and at the economic and political theocracy that the church had built in Utah. Un der the Edmunds Act and the Edmunds‐Taylor Act of 1887, Mormon leaders were jailed and church property was seized.
John Taylor, the immediate successor to Brigham Young, spent most of his 10‐year ad ministration in hiding. Wilford (Woodruff, the next Prophet, acting in the face of the virtual dispersal and breakup of the church, decided to submit to Federal power in 1890. Gradu ally, some church property was returned, but by the time Utah was admitted to the Union in 1896 the church was at an ebb (its membership was about 200,000) and it was searching out likely young men as mis sionaries and leaders.
At about the same time. Mr. McKay once recalled, he sought divine help for his own future by kneeling and asking God for a revelation that would guide his spiritual thoughts. His an swer, he said, came while he was serving as a missionary in Scotland, a call he undertook upon graduation from the uni versity. The answer was given by a Mormon official who as sured him:
"If you are faithful, you will yet stand in the leading coun cils of the church."
The missionary call was an event he still remembered at 95, when he thought of it as an opportunity "to follow in my father's footsteps and go to Scotland to teach the beliefs and principles of the Gospel." Missionary work in those days was arduous and often peri lous. Joseph Fielding Smith, who also served in the British Isles, recalled in a conversa tion in 1968, when he was 93, that he had been stoned at least once on his tour of duty. And finding likely converts was matter of chance.
Mr. McKay returned exhilarat ed to Utah in 1899 after hav ing been president of the Glas gow district of the British mis sion. He immediately began to teach English at Weber, be coming superintendent of the college in 1902. His experience as a teacher made him a stick ler for grammatical exactitude in himself and others. It also helped him forge a bond with young people, in whose educa tional welfare he was pro foundly interested.
In April, 1906, while still head of Weber, he was called to membership in the Council of Twelve Apostles, the church's governing body. At 32 he was its youngest member. In Mormon practice, a call, or an appointment, is regarded as a divine summons, which has priority over any temporal business in which the Mormon may be engaged.
Steady Rise in Church
Once an Apostle, Mr. McKay rose steadily in the church or ganization, A member of the Deseret Sunday School Board, he was appointed second as sistant general superintendent of the churchwide Sunday School and then a member of the church's Board of Educa tion. Increasing responsibilities obliged him to resign his job at Weber in 1908 to devote his energies to religious affairs. For 15 years his chief task was in the field of church educa tion, but he also took part in the Ogden Betterment League and the Red Cross.
Mr. McKay's career took a dramatic turn in late 1920, when he set off on a 13‐month tour of all the church's foreign missions, except that in South Africa. The 62,500‐mile trip, the most extensive of any Mormon leader up to that time, opened his eyes to the world outside Utah and laid the groundwork for his global re ligious outlook.
Almost immediately on his return to Salt Lake City he was dispatched to Liverpool for two years to head the church's European missions. Once back in Salt Lake City, he was given general respon sibility for the worldwide mis sions, a post in which he trav eled extensively. Then in 1934, he was named Second Coun selor in the First Presidency, the highest executive body in the church. The church leader was then Heber J. Grant, and when he died in 1945 Mr. Mc Kay was continued as a Coun selor by George Albert Smith, Mr. Grant's successor.
At various times during his membership in the First Presi dency Mr. McKay filled civic posts—he was chairman of the Utah State Centennial Commis sion and the Utah Council of Child Health and Protection; he served as regent of the Uni versity of. Utah, trustee of the State Agricultural College and trustee of Brigham Young Uni versity, a church‐operated in stitution.
The serenity of Mr. McKay's tenure as a Counselor was bro ken in 1945, when his favorite niece, Fawn McKay Brodie, published "No Man Knows My History," a biography of Jo seph Smith. The Mormon lead ership considered that the book, by the daughter of an Assistant Apostle, cast some reflections on the founder of their religion; and Mrs. Brodie was ordered to show cause why she should not be excom municated. She ignored the re quest. Her relations with her uncle, already strained be cause she had married out of the faith, were virtually broken.
How much Mr. McKay was involved in Mrs. Brodie's dis fellowship was never made clear. Observers noted, how ever, that in his administra tion no such penalty was im posed on Mrs. Juanita Brooks, a Mormon historian who wrote a book that rattled some church skeletons. Moreoever, when there was a move to ex communicate Dr. McMurrin a few years ago, Mr. McKay had it quashed.
Mr. McKay came to the church presidency on the death of George Albert Smith in April, 1951. As the eldest Apostle in point of service, he was "sustained," or accepted, as the Mormon Prophet by a church conference then in progress. In referring to him, even among themselves, Mor mons customarily used his title and full name—President Da vid O. McKay.
The first years of his admin istration were marked by a strong surge in missionary work. In a decade the number of missionaries was quadrupled to about 12,000, and the num ber of annual converts rose from 12,000 to 180,000. Apart from Europe, a traditional source, conversions were accel erated in Latin America and the South Seas. Wherever con verts were made the church, provided schools and recrea tion facilities. Mr. McKay's ac tive guidance in these projects was apparent, for he traveled everywhere in an effort to stimulate church growth—a to tal of 300,000 miles, he calcu lated.
At the same time Mr. McKay impressed his personality on the church by a nondognatic approach to religious and Civic affairs. On occasion he over rode his more conservative Counselors in taking the church out of some political disputes. He seemed to want to play down the church as an obvious arbiter at the ballot box.
In the early nineteen‐sixties the church leadership was trou bled by the John Birch Society, whose ultraconservative views appealed to many Mormons, among them Ezra Taft Benson, an Apostle and Secretary of Agriculture in the Eisenhower Cabinet. When in 1963 Mr. Benson outspokenly endorsed the aims of the society, he was sent to Europe for two years to head the church missionary effort. "David O. McKay sent him out a the country," ac cording to Wallace Turner In "The Mormon Establishment."
If Mr. Benson harbored any indignation over his "exile," he did not show it publicly. In fact, in an interview in 196S, he praised Mr. McKay as "a true man of God."
Heartfelt Liberalism
Mr. McKay's liberalism, ac cording to many observers, was a heartfelt feeling and it was against the grain of many of the aged church leaders, for whom authoritarianism was a righteous practice. In his later years, perhaps from 1965 on ward, these observers said, Mr. McKay tended more toward tradition than he formerly had.
Until illness enfeebled him, Mr. McKay was a familiar fig ure in Salt Lake City. He greeted friends on the streets; he mingled with church mem bers at conferences; he seemed never too busy for a brief chat. He was, according to one Mor mon who did not always agree with him, "the loving father of his people."
In addition to his role in opening the church to the world and in liberalizing some of its practices, Mr. McKay played a strong part in a pro gram to fortify family bonds. He sought to have families gather one night each week, with the father in charge, for a discussion of spiritual prob lems, for it was his conviction that the family was the basic: unit of society and of the church.
His Own family life was close. Ilk wife was Emma Ray Riggs, whom he married in 1901 and who was living at his death. They had seven chil dren, of whom six survive: David Lawrence McKay, Dr. Llewelvim R. McKay, Mrs. Lou Jean Blood. Mrs Emma Rae ?? McKay
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