“Now when we go on to the other side what kind of accounting will we have to make to our kindred ancestry to whom we are so much indebted? Suppose we have not gone out of our way to obtain knowledge of them – will it be sufficient justification on our part if we have to say that we did not know them? I am sure it would bring a reproach from them, and they might very properly say that ‘if you did not think enough of us to make a search to find us out and do this work for our salvation and progress, on whom may we depend? Have you sons and daughters or brothers and sisters who are going to look after us? Where are our hopes? How long will we have to be in this condition?’”

– George F. Richards, 1942

The following broadcast, written and announced by J. Spencer Kinard, and originating with Station KSL, Salt Lake City, Utah, was presented from 9:30 to 10 o’clock a.m. on Sunday, October 7, 1973, through the courtesy of the Columbia Broadcasting System’s network throughout the United States, parts of Canada, and through other facilities to several points overseas:

(At 9:30 on signal Organ and Choir break into “Gently Raise” singing words to end of second line, and humming to end of verse for announcer’s background)

Announcer: Once more we welcome you within these walls with Music and the Spoken Word from the Crossroads of the West.

CBS and its affiliated stations bring you at this hour the Tabernacle Choir from Temple Square in Salt Lake City, with Richard Condie conducting the Choir, Alexander Schreiner, Tabernacle Organist, and the Spoken Word by Spencer Kinard.

The music of Ebenezer Beesley brings to the Choir these words by Philo Dibble; “The happy day has rolled on. The truth restored is now made known… . The lands, which long benighted lay, Have now beheld a glorious day: …”

Continue reading You have been listening to the Tabernacle Choir and Organ Broadcast, 7 October 1973 →

The following broadcast, written and announced by J. Spencer Kinard, and originating with Station KSL, Salt Lake City, Utah, was presented from 9:30 to 10 o’clock a.m. on Sunday, April 8, 1973 through the courtesy of the Columbia Broadcasting System’s network throughout the United States,’ parts of Canada, and through other facilities to several points overseas:

(At 9:30 on signal Organ and Choir break into “Gently Raise” singing words to end of second line, and humming to end of verse for announcer’s background.)

Announcer: Once more we welcome you within these walls with Music and the Spoken Word from the Crossroads of the West.

CBS and its affiliated stations bring you at this hour the Tabernacle Choir from Temple Square in Salt Lake City, with Richard Condie conducting the Choir, Alexander Schreiner, Tabernacle Organist, and the Spoken Word by Spencer Kinard.

The Choir sings first a hymn by Evan Stephens with the words of William Goode: “Lo, the mighty God appearing; From on high Jehovah speaks! … Earth behold him!”

Continue reading You have been listening to the Tabernacle Choir and Organ Broadcast, 8 April 1973 →

The following broadcast, written and announced by Richard L. Evans, and originating with Station KSL, Salt Lake City, Utah, was presented from 8:35 to 9:00 a.m. MST, Sunday, October 3, 1965, through die courtesy of Columbia Broadcasting System’s network throughout the United States, parts of Canada, and throughout other facilities to several points overseas. The broadcast was as follows:

(Organ played “As the Dew From Heaven Distilling” and on signal organ and Choir broke into “Gently Raise” singing words to end of second line, and humming to end of verse for announcer’s background.)

Announcer: Once more we welcome you within these walls with music and the spoken word from the Crossroads of the West.

The CBS Radio Network and its affiliated stations bring you at this hour another presentation from Temple Square in Salt Lake City, with Richard Condie conducting the Tabernacle Choir, Alexander Schreiner, Tabernacle Organist, and the Spoken Word by Richard Evans.

Continue reading You have been listening to the Tabernacle Choir and Organ Broadcast, 3 October 1965 →

“Someone has said, ‘some men die at thirty but are not buried until they are seventy,’ having observed that when a person ceases to grow in knowledge, ceases to grow in spirit, and fails to live up to his responsibilities, he withers and dies, even though he still walks upon the earth. People bring this premature death upon themselves by their own attitudes, as a self-inflicted punishment for turning away from the light of truth. Jesus may have had reference to these, hoping that they might change, when he said: ‘… he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live; and whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die. …’ (John 11:25-26.)

“The Master knows that even men in such a dormant status, more dead than alive, can be changed, and so he pursues them in his ever-loving, every-caring, ever-forgiving way.”

– Bishop John H. Vandenberg, October 1970

The following broadcast, written and announced by Richard L. Evans, and originating with Station KSL, Salt Lake City, Utah, was presented from 9:35 to 10 a.m. Sunday, April 5, 1970, through the courtesy of the Columbia Broadcasting System’s network throughout the United States, parts of Canada, and through other facilities to several points overseas.

(Organ begins playing “As the Dew” on signal.

(On signal Organ and Choir break into “Gently Raise” singing words to end of second line, and humming to end of verse for announcer’s background)

Announcer: Once more we welcome you within these walls with Music and the Spoken Word from the Crossroads of the West.

CBS and its affiliated stations bring you at this hour another presentation from Temple Square in Salt Lake City, with Richard Condie conducting the Tabernacle Choir, Alexander Schreiner, Tabernacle Organist, and the Spoken Word by Richard Evans.

Continue reading You have been listening to the Tabernacle Choir and Organ Broadcast, 5 April 1970 →

“I know that it will not be very long before my work will be finished, in the natural course of events. I have had many experiences and have traveled in the world and mingled with many wonderful men and women, and I would like to say that I learned when I was a boy that this is the work of the Lord. I learned that there were prophets living upon the earth. There are thousands of members of this Church who know it – it is not a question of imagination at all – they know that God lives and that Jesus is the Christ and that we are the children of God. He is the Father of our spirits.”

– George Albert Smith, April 1946

“I do not propose to give a startling account of an open vision. I have not seen one. Neither have I heard an audible voice. Revelation comes through three or four channels. One is the open vision; another is the audible voice; another is the witness of the Spirit.”

– Marion G. Romney, April 1955

Excerpt of a letter from J. Wyley Sessions (president of the South African Mission) to Franklin S. Harris (president of Brigham Young University), dated 6 October 1922:

I am not sure that I told you of my interesting experience recently at Bloemfontein, Orange Free State. I was in a bookstore and while talking with the manager, I told him what my work was and the usual answer came from him. He said he understood that the Government had excluded us from the Country. “I do not believe in letting such things get started in Africa. I do not want to have anything to do with the Mormons.” I talked to him a moment and changed the subject to agriculture, and I asked him to look at some books he had in the most conspicuous rack in the store. He recommended the books very highly and said they were the best on the subjects treated. I fully agreed with him and then took from the rack two books written by Dr. Widtsoe, two of your books, and Dr. [George] Thomas’ [president of the University of Utah] book on irrigation law. You can guess how he felt when I told him that you were all Mormons and that you are at the head of our Church School System.

Continue reading “You can guess how he felt when I told him” →

This is the story I contributed to my ward Relief Society’s bimonthly newsletter this morning. If it sounds familiar, you may have read a very brief version once upon a time on one of my Facebook pages.

Pearl Overstreet McCafferty (1882-1955) had only one brief connection with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, so far as I know, but that one contact shows her to have been a kind, compassionate woman whose act is worthy of being remembered.

Pearl was a relatively wealthy woman of Sacramento, California, the sort of woman whose vacations and visitors in the 1920s through the 1940s were reported in the society columns of local newspapers. Born in Kentucky, raised in Oklahoma, she graduated from Oklahoma’s Northwestern State College before moving with her daughter Thelma to Sacramento in 1911. There she married a local man, Walter McCafferty, who had moved to California from Kansas.

The couple set about building a future for their family, beginning with a single hardware store that eventually grew into ownership of large tracts of real estate, which they subdivided for homes, as well as interests in apartment buildings and a hotel. In addition to raising Thelma and carrying her share of the business, Pearl participated in a local dramatics club, enjoying roles in plays that sometimes brought her acclaim in the newspapers of Sacramento and vicinity. She was a member of Westminster Presbyterian Church.

Continue reading Pearl Overstreet McCafferty: “I don’t quite understand but maybe you can” →