Mary Ellen W. Smoot

Mary Ellen W. Smoot

Mary Ellen Wood Smoot (born August 19, 1933) was the thirteenth general president of the Relief Society of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) from 1997 to 2002.

Mary Ellen Wood was born in Ogden, Utah, and raised in Clearfield, Utah. In 1952 she married Stanley M. Smoot in the Salt Lake Temple.

In 1983, Smoot accompanied her husband to Ohio, where her husband presided over the Ohio Columbus Mission of the church, and later the Ohio Akron Mission. The Smoots later served as the head of Church hosting for VIPs that visited Temple Square and LDS Church headquarters in Salt Lake City, Utah.

At the April 1997 church general conference, Smoot was accepted as the general president of the Relief Society, with Virginia U. Jensen and Sheri L. Dew as her counselors. Smoot succeeded Elaine L. Jack, who had been Relief Society president since 1990. Smoot was the first Relief Society president to call an unmarried woman—Dew—to be a member of the general Relief Society presidency. Smoot was succeeded in 2002 by Bonnie D. Parkin.

Smoot and her husband are the parents of seven children. She sits on the advisory board of the West Ridge Academy.