Estimated read time: 2-3 minutes
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
BOUNTIFUL — Sister Kathleen Johnson Eyring — wife of President Henry B. Eyring, second counselor in the First Presidency of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints — died Sunday at the age of 82.
Sister Eyring "passed away peacefully today, surrounded by her family" in Bountiful, according to a statement from the church.
Sister Eyring was born in San Francisco, California, on May 11, 1941, to J. Cyril and LaPrele Lindsay Johnson. Following high school, where she served in several leadership positions and as valedictorian, she continued her education at the University of California at Berkeley, In 1961, she met Henry B. Eyring by attending a devotional while away at summer school in Boston.
The young Harvard student recalled thinking, "If I could only be with her, I could be every good thing I ever wanted to be."
The pair were later married on July 19, 1962, in the Logan Utah Temple. The couple spent the first years of their marriage in California where their family expanded with sons Henry, Stuart and Matthew. The family then moved to Idaho after President Eyring was offered the position of president of Ricks College, now BYU–Idaho, in 1970.
The Eyrings later moved to Utah in 1977, after he was named the church's deputy commissioner of church education. The family expanded further with the addition of another son and two daughters. President Eyring was later called to the church's Quorum of Twelve of Apostles in 1995 and to the First Presidency in 2007.
Sister Eyring served in many formal church responsibilities, including producing a newsletter for her congregation for many years. But she served and ministered to others in quiet, less formal ways. Her son Matthew J. Eyring said, "Her most important service was quiet compassion for those who had experienced difficulty and sadness in their lives. She would always seek out 'the one' without fanfare and help that person feel her love and the love of the Savior."
She is remembered as a gifted writer and often offered editorial counsel to her husband throughout his career and during her church service. Beyond church-related writing, Sister Eyring recorded family memories through scripts for family events and helped co-publish a monthly family newsletter. She also wrote a young adult novel that won a statewide prize for young adult literature in 1979.
Sister Eyring provided support during her husband's long recovery from cancer surgery in 2005 and when he was called to the First Presidency in 2007, the church statement said. During this time, she began suffering from memory lapses. As her memory continued to fade, President Eyring cared for her, often bringing her to his office to read and rest on a reclining chair while he was in meetings.
President Eyring has said, "Kathleen has always been a person that made me want to be the very best that I can be."
Funeral arrangements are pending.
