S U N 5 T O N E

A Grandson’s Reminiscence

HUGH B. BROWN IN HIS FINAL YEARS

By Edwin B. Firmage

PRESIDENT DAVID O. MCKAY DIED ON 18 JANUARY more satisfied with the loving unity of the First Presidency than 1970. My gl~’andfather Hugh B. Brown and President McKay had at any time in his presidency. This period lasted from the time become loving, intimate friends during the course of Grandfa- when Henry Moyle and Grandfather served as first and second ther’s service as a , especially during his time counselors through Moyle’s death and the early years of Grandfa- as counselor to President McKay. ther’s service with President N. Eldon Tanner. This was not always true, at least to that degree. While I know of no antagonism between CHURCH GOVERNMENT them in earlier years, both had similar strengths which, of The period of President course, had their dark side. McKay’s declining health was Both were tall, patrician, star- another matter. This was a tlingly handsome men; both troubled time in Church gov- were gifted orators of the old ernment, but it also marked school; both were in demand one of Grandfather’s greatest as speakers virtually from early periods of service, albeit nega- manhood; both could be tive service, in a sense. proud men as well as humble. As President McKay became I believe an understandable increasingly impaired by age, sense of competition had some Church functionaries existed in earlier years. attempted to influence the But during his years as a president in ways that Grand- third counselor to President father, President Tanner and McKay dusting President J. Elder Harold B. Lee thought to Reuben Clark’s failing health, be unwise and improper. These and then as second and first attempts came from the radical counselor, a very warm and political right, :not from sources intimate bond of love formed within either of the two major between the two men, of that parties. These three quality that can only happen when people finally move beyond men-Grandfather in particular-sought with high but not com- self-seeking plete success to block those efforts to influence Church policy. During those years of good health for President McKay, he told This effort took a fearful toll on Grandfather as well as his Grandfather on a number of occasions that he was happier and personal relationships. On the theological side, for years Grandfather had strenuously EDWIN B. FIRMAGE, a grandson of Hugh B. Brown, is a professor sought to effect a change in the Mormon policy that denied the of law at the University of Law School. This article is a priesthood to blacks. He had never believed that this Church version of the concluding chapter [rom a [orthcoming book of the policy had the slightest doctrinal justification. Rather, he thought memoirs of Hugh B. Brown, of which Firmage is the editor. the policy had been set before the Civil War to protect the

NOVEMBER 1987 PHOTOGRAPHS COURTESY OF ZOLA BROWN HODSON PAGE 7 S U N S T O N E abolitionist Mormons who had ~moved from the Northeast to Although he had contracted Parkinson’s disease and was in Missouri, a slave state, against allegations by slave owners that declining health, he did not believe that this was the reason for Mormons were preaching abolition to slaves. Since then, he his return to the Twdve. I bdieve without the slightest doubt that believed, a rather disreputable theology of sorts had grown up his position on blacks and the priesthood was the matter that led around a policy that had lost any justifiable reason for its to Grandfather’s removal from the new First Presidency. This continuance. policy change, so vital in freeing all our souls, would come several Grandfather had initiated a number of administrative changes years later during the presidency of Spencer W. Kimball, a man to mitigate this policy which he felt was thoroughly unchristian Grandfather loved dearly. By then, all the major protagonists had and indefensible. He had accomplished a change in the presump- died: President Lee, President Smith, and Grandfather. tion of racial heritage that in effect removed any possibility of Revelation, it would seem, doesn’t always or even usually come preventing priesthood ordination for thousands of people, par- as a bolt out of the blue, but rather as good people give of ticularly in nations such as Brazil. With President McKay’s themsdves with all their hearts. Seeds are planted, consciences support he attempted to change the policy regarding a new pricked, sensitivities increased and consciousness raised until African . This plan conversion occurs. ultimately failed. Grandfather came to Grandfather eventually believe strongly that the succeeded in getting a pro- Church had not come to posal allowing full pries- terms with the problem of thood for blacks approved age and infirmity in the by the Quorum of the Church leaderghip. In an Twelve. However, Elder attempt to meet this need, Harold B. Lee, who was not after his return to the present when the proposal Twelve following President had been approved, was McKay’s death, he proposed successful in killing it. an emeritus status for all (During this time, while General Authorities, Joseph Fielding Smith was including members of the president of the Quorum of Quorum of the Twelve and the Twelve, Elder Lee was the First Presidency. This the dominant senior voice would have affected the due to President Smith’s line of succession to the advanced age.) presidency of the Church. Elder Lee then sought to His proposal deliberately memoriali7e his belief in set the age for emeritus sta- the doctrinal basis for the tus so that he would have denial of priesthood to blacks by drafting a statement on the been rendered emeritus by the adoption of his plan. He told me, matter for the First Presidency’s consideration. At this time, only half in jest, that perhaps getting rid of him would sweeten President McKay was declining m health and did not sign such the proposal for some quorum members. His proposal was documents. While Grandfather successfully added language to rejected, although under President Kimball a truncated version the statement that endorsed full civil rights for all citizens, the was adopted for authorities at less important levds of Church statement also asserted that the disallowance of the priesthood to government. blacks was doctrinally based. Initially, and for some time, Grand- Grandfather’s return to his bdoved Quorum of the Twdve was father refused to sign the statement because of such language. By a sweet time of final service. He toured missions, visited stakes, this time he was also suffering physically from advanced age and and preached with the profound eloquence that was his great gift. from the late stages of Parkinson’s disease. In addition, he was He touched souls as few people in any secular or church position very ill with the Asian flu. In this condition, Brother Lee brought have been able to. enormous pressure to bear upon Grandfather, arguing that he was Of course, he was deeply wounded by his rdease from the obliged to join the consensus within the Quorum of the Twdve First Presidency. Whatever might have motivated others in this since President McKay’s incapacity affected the rdative power act, once again the Gardener was pruning. I believe that the and legitimacy of the First Presidency vis-a-vis the Twelve. Grand- Church was the poorer without Brother Brown and his sensi- father, deeply ill, wept as he related this story to me just before tivity on social and moral issues in the First Presidency, but there he signed the statement that bore his name and President Tan- is no doubt that he grew from the blow and ended his life yet ner’s. more sensitive, humane and humble. Grandfather was dropped from the First Presidency when it Happily, there was reconciliation with President Lee before was reorganized under President Joseph Fidding Smith. Grandfather’s death, since these men had been dear friends and

PAGE 8 PRESIDENTS TANNER, MCKAY AND BROWN NOVEMBER 1987 S U N S T O N E brothers long before they were General Authorities. At one point, with one part of his body after another in swift decline. As we after his return to the Quorum, Grandfather became gravdy illleft, Grandfather said tenderly, "Is there anything we can do for and was not expected to live through the night. His daughtersyou, Reuben?" Brother Clark started to cry. He said, "Pray for me, Zina and Ivlary, and myself, were summoned that night by theHugh, that I can endure to the end." They embraced and we left. doctor. President Lee came to join with the family and weNow, it was Grandfather’s and Grandmother’s turn. prepared a press rdease announcing his death. We blessed and Grandmother lay in bed for nearly eight years, fully conscious anointed Grandfather, and President Lee spoke words of recon- most of the time and completely unable to serve herself in any ciliation m the blessing that brought Grandfather momentarilyway. Grandfather, with his children and wonderful nurses, ten- out of his coma into tearful consciousness. The next morning hederly served her every day. For decades Grandmother had served awoke, looked the doctor in the eye, and said, characteristically, him quietly and, as far as the world was concerned, invisibly. "I fooled you, didn’t I!" Now he had the He lived for several chance to serve her. more years, although He did so joyously. So President Lee died far as I saw and heard, soon thereafter. there wasn’t any com- plaint from either of FAMII_Y LIFE them to God or to any- one. During this last Whenever he decade, grandmother returned from a Zina :suffered several church assignment he strokes which left her approached what had an invalid, unable to been the dining leave her bed or to talk room-now converted except for an occa- to Grandmother’s sional sound. Grand- use-an airy, light, father tended her daily windowed room at the with a touching ten- front of the house. derness. She faded Always, with a flower, visibly when he was he would tap on her away and bloomed on window and say, with his return. Often he an accent learned from brought her a flower over a decade of from their garden as church service in his he crone home from a beloved England, First Presidency "Toot, toot, lVlama! I’m assignment. Grand- here! Your sweetheart mother was stricken is home." Then he in August of 1966. At would hobble in with that time I lived a cane in one hand and almost next door to the arm of a son or them, on Douglas daughter or grandchild Street. Grandfather, his legs beginning to fail although his mind in the other and greet his mate of over sixty years. was as alert as ever, would exercise as best he could. With a cane, They had begun courting almost seventy years before, while his upper body seeming to move dangerously faster than his legs, he was in England in 1904, he a young missionary from Canada he would pass our window, wave, go to the end of the street and and she a very young teenager in Logan. They had corresponded return to Grandmother’s side. in beautiful letters addressed to "Dear Sister Zina" and "Dear For them, these final years of life together were bittersweet. Brother Hugh." Grandmother lived through a massive stroke and then continuing Grandfather was the only one, doctors and children not smaller strokes incapacitated her, finally completely. Grandfather excepted, who could bring Grandmother instantly ont of the suffered increasingly the effects of Parkinson’s syndrome. As I deepest coma. On several occasions I saw him stand over her bed watched him then, I remembered a poignant moment in the early and simply say, "Zina." She immediately awoke, opened her eyes, 1960s, when Grandfather had taken me to meet J. Reuben Clark and smiled. just prior to his death. I was a young law student between school He asked her not to die before he did, and she made a valiant years at the University of Chicago. President Clark was infirm, effort to comply. Grandmother died in December 1974, and

NOVEMBER 1987 PRESIDENTS TANNER, BROWN, MCKAY, SMITH, LEE AND KIMBALL PAGE 9 S U N S T O N E

Grandfather followed almost exactly one year later. Near the end, Grandfather dreamed of dear friends who had p.receded him in death: Stayner Richards, Marvin O. Ashton, ZEAL FOR LIFE Harold B. Lee. One night he dreamed he was in the Savior’s presence. No words were exchanged, and he said none were Grandfather was an infinitely curious man. He had a wan- necessary. "His love enriched me and I felt his understanding derlust that took him to almost every part of the globe. In his acceptance of me despite all my imperfect ways." He cried as he nineties and suffering severely by that time from a crippling related the dream. disease, he was planning a trip to China or Russia for the two of As he approached death, confined to bed or at best a wheel- us, the only places he hadn’t visited. He read voraciously, pri- chair, he endured the humiliation of incontinence with a wistful marily history, biography, politics, philosophy and religion. As a humor. He had to_be fed as well. Even then, when his powerful young boy and until his magnifying glass would death, I was drawn to no longer allow him to his huge library, bor- read, he asked that we rowing books we both read to him. The morn- knew I would likely ing following a mild never return. Once near stroke that caused a slur- the end he called me and ring of his speech, he said, "Eddie, I haven’t nevertheless asked that received the last issue of we read him the morn- Dialogue. Do you think ing paper. He frowned at they’ve cut me off from the dourness of the news the Church?" I assured of the day. Then he indi- him that they wouldn’t cated that we should do that. He asked that I read the obituary page. call to make sure his He asked if his name subscription hadn’t lap- was there and when sed. I’m not sure how assured that it was not, diligently he read the he slurred the words, Ensign, but he read Dia- "son of obituary!" logue cover to cover. Even though quite He approached death infirm, he wanted des- with the same curiosity perately to attend the with which he dedication of the Wash- approached life. He ington Temple. He had instructed us that no been instrumental in heroic measures were to selecting the temple’s be used to prolong his site, conducted its life and particularly that ground breaking cer- he be given no drugs emony, and was that would dull his sen- involved in seeing it sory experience of through to completion. death. He told me that he was likely to enjoy this only once and Friends made solicitous arrangements for Grandfather to be he didn’t want to miss a thing. Never once did he ever speak flown to Washington and to have Dr. Russell Nelson in the room fearfully or regretfully or disparagingly of death. He loved life and next to him. enjoyed it enormously, to the full. But he also anticipated death Although an office was maintained for him at Church head- with what I can only describe as a very positive zest. He was not quarters, in the last period, Grandfather conducted almost all of preoccupied by death, but he was enormously curious. He talked his business at home. His daughter Zina devoted almost her full to me often about death in his last years, always with enthusiasm time to assisting her parents during those final years. Grandfather but never in a morbid way. We speculated together about the died with Zina holding his hand. nature of life after death. He had absolutely no doubt about our continuing life. In fact, he promised only half jokingly to come POLITICS AND RELIGION back and tell me what it was like. He has not done that yet, and I still hold him to the promise. (He did return, however, to a Grandfather believed devoutly in the gospel of Jesus Christ young great-granddaughter, a namesake of his wife Zina, during and possessed a profound testimony of the Restoration through a cardiac arrest.) .Joseph Smith. Yet he possessed an outgoing, accepting spirit that

NOVEMBER 1987 PAGE 10 ZINA AND HUGH BROWN S U N S T O N E refused to take seriously the lines by which we divide ourselves change our lives. from each other, whether within rdigion or politics. He had He gave us the example of one possessed of great spiritual and broad and loving contact, as did Presidents Grant and McKay intellectual honesty; who refused to be limited by those who read before him, with many religious leaders of other faiths. By his others out of orthodoxy. Grandfather felt we were forbidden to very nature, by his own resonant psychology and spirituality, exercise this judgment against ourselves or others. He gloried in Grandfather possessed an ecumenical spirit. intellectual and spiritual freedom, consistent, he said, with the In politics Grandfather was an ardent Democrat. As a young Mormon teaching of agency and the uncreatedness of tb~e human boy growing up in a Republican family and somewhat vaguely intelligence: aware that most Church leaders were Republicans, I asked "When I consult my own inner self I find a deep-seated, Grandfather why he was a Democrat. He simply said, "Eddie, I’m perhaps instinctive feeling of immeasurable oldness, an echo of a Detnocrat because I time immemorial, as well beliew." that party is more as a feeling of necessary sensitive to the poor." endlessness. No. adverse His answer seemed to logic or reason can dispel me siraplistic at the time. these feelings. I did not But since then, it has put them there. I found impre:~sed me as a pretty them there. When I grew good ,criterion by which ...... old enough to introspect to judge both politics my mind, and m spite of and rdigion. Many years recurrent doubts, and crit- before, when Grand- icism, (his innate knowl- father came to this coun- edge remains try from Canada as a unimpaired." young man, ignorant of He appreciamd fully our party politics, he had the refusal of Joseph asked his friend and Smith to adopt rigid older mentor, President creeds by which we pre- HeberJ. Grant, for advice sumed to define God or on party affiliation. Pres- our relationship to Him. ident Grant said, "Hugh, He defined the gospel if you want to join a as encompassing all party of special privilege knowledge and refused to and wealth, be a Repub- ’ assign more ~’.ruth to lican. If you want to join scripture or to any other the party of the people, prophetic teaching than be a Democrat." Grand- the traces of God’s finger, father maintained this which he saw in the view ~hro~agh a lifetime stones of the earth, the of political! activity. stars of the cosmos, and Grandfather left a rich the center of our own legacy to his family and souls. He recogniized obe- to the Church. Perhaps his most important gift is impossible to dience to authority as a virtue, but he placed more value on quantify. I-[e touched thousands of lives intimatdy in the way that fidelity to God, discipleship to Jesus, and a loving relationship to one can only do in personal interviews. Scores of thousands of others. He realized that his responsibility for his own acts could people:, many of them young people, sought him out. Whether never be borne by another, leader or no. as a member of a bishopric, as one of the Church’s youngest stake Truly he possessed a universal, Pauline spirit that pushed to presidents, as coordinator of all LDS servicemen in Europe during the widest possible limits the thirteenth Article of Faith. World War II, as professor of religion at BYU, or as a General We miss him. ’ Authority, he gave of himself in counseling without restraint. Next, he was the Church’s greatest orator of his time. No speaker of his generation approached his eloquence, his fervor in preaching the gospd of Jesus Christ. He will not be remembered as a great expositor or interpreter of theology. But anyone who heard his voice or saw and felt his commanding presence was moved by what they experienced. He had the capacity to help us

NOVEIVlBER 1987 BROWN AT THE WASHINGTON TEMPLE DEDICATION PAGE 11