1949 was a momentous year for our Edith. After having emigrated from England to the U.S. to attend Brigham Young University on a scholarship arranged by Latter-day Saints impressed by her work as the first woman editor (well, associate editor – the editor title always belonged to the mission president with overall responsibility for the magazine) of the Millennial Star, Edith was both studying and teaching at BYU.

In May that year, the president of the university published a story in the Millennial Star about BYU’s international student body. We catch a glimpse of Edith, helping Pres. McDonald put that story together.

A Banner is Unfurled

By Howard S. McDonald of the Brigham Young University

Every true “Child of Brigham Young University” is proud of his school, founded by Karl G. Maeser, the great pioneer educator, set like a jewel in the horny hand of the giant Rockies, swept by mountain mists, washed by mountain rains, a growing citadel of learning in this fertile land of the west. …

Come for a moment into the building we call affectionately, and with real pride, the “Joseph Smith” building and feel the never-to-be-forgotten spirit of one of our Devotional Assemblies. Here is the youth of Zion, the Church’s man and womanhood, assailing the ramparts of higher education with a sort of throat-catching courage and avid faith in the essential “rightness” of their principles and their beliefs, accounting it a privilege to make all manner of personal sacrifices to see them established: surely they are worth working and living for. … They come from all over the world. …

Sister Edith Russell, from Bradford, Yorkshire, England, finds deep satisfaction in the life of the university. She intersperses studying with teaching and frankly rejoices to feel herself a part of this great institution. To her I am grateful for helping me assemble the material for this article.

As we lift our eyes, with David, to the tops of the mountains, we at Brigham Young University, your university, send our love and blessings to the Saints in Britain. And we bid them, too, look upward!

A banner is unfurled!

-oooOooo-

Surely the happiest day that year must have been 29 June, when Edith Russell married Lawrence Oliphant in the Salt Lake Temple. I don’t know much about him, yet – he was a few years younger than Edith, and served a mission in England in 1946. The couple did not meet while he was a missionary – Edith was already on her way to Utah when he arrived in England.

Here they are, Edith and Lawrence, on their wedding day, at a wedding luncheon hosted by John and Leah Widtsoe:

.

.

Here’s the story of Edith’s wedding, as reported in the Salt Lake Tribune:

Russell-Oliphant – In one of the season’s beautiful weddings, performed Wednesday by John A. Widtsoe, in Salt Lake LDS temple, Miss Edith Russell, a daughter of Mrs. Doris M. Russell of Yorkshire, England, became the bride of T. Lawrence Oliphant, a son of Mr. and Mrs. Elgin Oliphant of Orem.

Mr. and Mrs. Johdn A. Widtsoe were hosts to the newlyweds at a luncheon at their home, 1425 Sigsbee ave., following the ceremony, and the popular newlyweds received friends at a reception at the home of Mr. and Mrs. Hugh B. brown in Provo.

The lovely bride wore a gown of creme satin, made simply with self-button trim leading to a bustled back and court train. A seed pearl coronet held her fingertip veil and she carried white rosebuds.

Mrs. Barbara M. Smith attended the bride as matron of honor; Miss Virginia Oliphant was bridesmaid.

John Nutter was best man.

The new bride has attended BYU for the past three years. Mr. Oliphant is also a student of that school.

-oooOooo-

Did you catch the detail in last week’s chapter where Edith mentioned “an old diabetic condition” that she hid from the ship’s doctor in order to be admitted to the U.S.? And the references to time spent in Utah hospitals?

Edith had been diagnosed with diabetes at about the time she was baptized. It progressed rapidly – she coped through the war years, but the disease began to affect her heart, and her kidneys.

Too soon after her wedding, Edith was back in the hospital, her kidneys failing rapidly. Although she had been brought back from the brink of death more than once, this time there would be no reprieve.

On August 18, when she was only 30 years old, when she was just six weeks a bride, Edith slipped away.

Edith R. Oliphant

OREM – Funeral services for Mrs. Edith Russell Oliphant, 30, Brigham Young University instructor who died Thursday after a lingering illness, will be conducted Monday at 1 p.m. in Grandview ward chapel, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Orem.

Mrs. Oliphant was well known for her writing in LDS church publications. She came to Utah from her home in England on a scholarship to BYU through efforts of Dr. Hugh B. Brown, Provo, and Dr. John A. Widtsoe, Salt Lake City, in 1945.

She was born Dec. 10, 1919, ((Records conflict on whether she was born in 1918 or 1919 – I need to do further research.)) in Wilsden, Bradford, England, a daughter of Thomas [John?] and Dora Mary [Padfield] Russell. She was educated in Bradford schools and became a convert to the LDS church in 1943 in England.

She was married to T. Lawrence Oliphant June 29, 1949, in Salt Lake LDS temple.

Surviving are her husband, her mother and two brothers, Michael and Anthony Russell, England.

Services will be conducted by G. Milton Jameson, bishop of Hillcrest LDS ward. Burial will be in Orem cemetery. Friends may call at Olpin mortuary, Orem, Sunday evening and Monday until time of services.

There are still some odds and ends to be posted in future columns, as well as two Christmas stories programmed for December posting. If any readers want to hunt around for additional items, I will be delighted to post them with credit to you, as part of this memorial to Edith Russell.