Featured on my Facebook page, and posted here for archiving.

In the summer of 1912, Apostle Orson F. Whitney with a handful of other Church leaders from Salt Lake toured the Mormon settlements in Alberta, Canada. They spoke at a stake conference, held meetings with the young people, even spoke at a funeral at the request of the deceased’s husband. Elder Whitney recorded this: “In one of the meetings “Grandma” Easthope, nearly eighty years of age, sang a sacred song in a beautiful clear voice.”

Some of my best stories start with no greater clue than this, so I wanted to identify “Grandma Easthope.” I haven’t found any more of a story, but did find her. She is Sarah Taylor Easthope, 1837-1925, a child convert from Middleton, Lancaster, England who was baptized in 1847 and emigrated to Utah in 1868 with one of the last ox-trains before the coming of the railroad.

And she still had a beautifully clear singing voice in 1912.