Joseph Fielding Smith - Family and Personal Life

Family and Personal Life

Smith married his first wife, Louise Emily "Emyla" Shurtliff (born 16 June 1876) on April 26, 1898. In March 1899, Smith was called on a mission to Great Britain by Lorenzo Snow, the President of the Church. On May 12, 1899, Smith was set apart as a missionary and ordained a Seventy by his father. A small group of missionaries, including Smith and his older brother Joseph Richards Smith, left the next day for England. After his return from the British mission in July 1901, Smith and his wife Louise had two daughters, Josephine and Julina. Louise Shirtliff Smith died of complications of a third pregnancy on March 28, 1908.

Smith married Ethel Georgina Reynolds (born 23 October 1889), the daughter of prominent LDS Church leader George Reynolds, on November 2, 1908. They had four girls (Emily, Naomi, Lois, Amelia) and five boys, Joseph Fielding (most often called Joseph Fielding Smith, Jr.), Lewis Warren, George Reynolds, Douglas Allan and Milton Edmund. Their youngest daughter Amelia married Bruce R. McConkie; McConkie became a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles shortly after Smith's death. Ethel Reynolds Smith died of a cerebral hemorrhage on 26 August 1937, at age 47.

Ethel had specifically requested that Jessie Ella Evans (December 29, 1902-1971) sing at her funeral. Evans, born to Jonathan Evans and his wife the former Janet Buchanan, joined the Mormon Tabernacle Choir in 1918, was a member of the American Light Opera Company (1923-1927) and the Salt Lake County Recorder. In November Evans and Smith got engaged.

In April 1938, Smith married Evans in the Salt Lake Temple. The marriage was performed by Heber J. Grant. The couple had no children, although Milton was only eleven when Joseph and Jessie married and George and Douglas were still under the age of 18. Smith's third wife died on 2 August 1971.