Lucy Mack Smith
Blessed is my mother, for her soul is ever filled with benevolence and philanthropy, and notwithstanding her age, she shall yet receive strength and be comforted in the midst of her house. Thus said the lord, she shall have eternal life. (Joseph Smith, Jr.)
Abigail (Nabby) Howe Young
Of my mother—she that bore me—I can say, no better woman ever lived in the world than she was. I have the feelings of a son toward her: I should have them—it is right, but I judged the matter pertaining to her from the principles and the spirit of the teachings I received from her. Would she countenance one of her children in the least act that was wrong according to her traditions? No, not in the least degree. (Brigham Young)
Agnes Taylor Taylor
Here rests a pattern of the female life
The woman, friend, the mother and the wife.
A woman form’d by nature, more than art,
With smiling ease to gain upon the heart
A friend as true as guardian angels are,
Kindness her law, humanity her care.
A mother, sweetly tender, justly dear,
Oh, never to be nam’d without a tear...
Love in her heart, compassion in her eye,
Her thoughts as humble, as her virtues high...
Born to relieve the poor, the rich to please,
To live with honor, and to die in peace.
So full of hope, her wishes so resign’d,
Her life so blameless, so unstain’d her mind,
Heaven smil’d to see, and gave the gracious nod,
Nor longer would detain her from her God.
Beulah Thompson Woodruff and Azubah Hart Woodruff
O God, console the heart of my stepmother, Azubah, who has watched my wants, my youth, and my life. And when my mother, Beulah, rises from the grave, let the union of my father be like a three-fold cord not easily broken. True friendship is always eternal. (Wilford Woodruff)
Mary Fielding Smith
O! My God, how I love and cherish true Motherhood! Nothing beneath the celestial kingdom can surpass my deathless love for the sweet, true, noble soul who gave me birth. My own, own Mother. O! She was good! She was true! She was indeed a Saint! A royal daughter of God! To her I owe my very existence, as also my success in life, coupled with the favor and mercy of God. (Joseph F. Smith)
Rosetta Leonora Pettibone Snow
A more kind, indulgent, and affectionate parent than her [my mother] no man ever had. She was good, and virtuous, benevolent, and charitable to all—true and faithful in the New and Everlasting Covenant. I am comforted in the thought that her spirit rests in peace in the presence of her Great Father. Oh that my daughters may live out their probation with no more blots up on the page of their history than angels see upon that of their grandmother whose head lies low, yet honorable in the grave. (Lorenzo Snow)
Rachel Ridgeway Ivins Grant
My mother was both father and mother to me, as father died when I was about nine days old. So never to the Lord would she get in her prayers that they were a wonderful inspiration to me from childhood to manhood. When she died, the Pacific Coast manager of the New York Life Insurance Company, who once boarded at our home, wrote me: “If the God of nature ever did stamp peace, nobility, and serenity upon any human countenance, He did upon the face of dear ‘Aunt Rachel’.” “To know ‘Aunt Rachel’,” as my mother was affectionately called, “was to love her,” is an expression I have heard times without number. I do not recall ever seeing her angry, or hearing her speak an unkind word. Mother was indeed a lovable character, always looking for the good in others, and never for their failings. She was truly a noble woman, a true Latter-day Saint. (Heber J. Grant)
Julina Lambson Smith
I was trained at my mother’s knee to love the Prophet Joseph Smith and to love my Redeemer. . . . I used to sit by [her] as a little child and listen to her stories about the pioneers. . . . She used to teach me and put in my hands, when I was old enough to read, things that I could understand. She taught me to pray, . . . To be true and faithful to my covenants and obligations, to attend to my duties as a deacon and a teacher. . . . And later as a priest. . . . I had loved a mother who saw to it that I did read, and loved to read. . . . I learned at a very early day that God lives. (Joseph Fielding Smith)
Sarah Farr Smith
My mother was born in a Latter-day Saint home. . . . She passed through the experiences of pioneer life in such manner as to develop the best there is in a human being. She began life with a strong physique and a cheerful disposition. . . . Her training made her exceedingly frugal and economical so that when, as a young girl, she married my father, . . . She began home-making under the most favorable circumstances. . . . Mother was and is one of the most industrious women I ever knew. I well remember, when I was a child, how she was the first one up in the morning and the last one to bed at night. And during her experience of giving birth to eleven children and rearing aight of them to man and womanhood not one of us was ever neglected in any way. She was a strict disciplinarian, and we always knew that when she told us to do anything she meant it. (George Albert Smith)
Jeannette Eveline Evans McKay
My Mother! God bless you!
For your purity of soul,
Your faith, your tenderness,
Your watchful care,
Your supreme patience,
Your companionship and trust,
Your loyalty to the right,
Your helped and inspiration to father,
Your unselfish devotion to us children.
(David O. McKay)
Louisa Emeline Bingham Lee
I have been blessed with . . . A grand and lovely mother, one who didn’t display her affection, but showed her love in tangible ways that, as a child, I came early to recognize as true mother love. As just a high school boy I went away on a high school debating team. We won the debate. I came back and called mother on the telephone only to have her say, “Never mind, son, I know all about it . . .” When I came home she took me aside and said: “When I knew it was time for this performance to start I went out among the willows by the creek side, and there, all by myself, I remembered you and prayed God you would not fail.” I have come to know that every kind of love is necessary for every son and daughter who seeks to achieve in this world. (Harold B. Lee)
Olive Woolley Kimball
My mother was faultless. She was saint . . . , the epitome of perfection. Who could even mention one virtue that she did not possess? She seemed especially angelic when the light shined through her light red hair and made a halo. . . . When others spoke in condemnation, her lips were always silent. . . . I liked being with my Ma. (Spencer W. Kimball)
Sarah Dunkley Benson
We had great spiritual moments in our home, many of them after Father left for his mission. In our prayers at night [Mother] would pray and pray and pray that Father would be successful, that he wouldn’t worry about home. She’d pray that our work might go well in the fields, that we’d be kind to each other. She may have sept in the privacy of her bedroom, but she never doubted Father’s call. I marveled at Mother’s faith. When your mother prays with such fervor, night after night, you think twice before you do something to disappoint her. (Ezra Taft Benson)
