Center for Latter-day Saint Arts

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In Memoriam

Robert L. Backman

General authority and Deseret Book author

March 22, 1922-June 3, 2022

"Elder Backman was an inspiring, energetic speaker. During his time as a General Authority, he hosted the radio program, You and Your World [and] later compiled into two books" (legacy.com).

Obituary

"Be a master of yourself, in thought, speech and action. Follow your own truth and justice, for each walk a different path. Uphold your own viewpoints, ideology, and beliefs for it makes you, you" (Excerpt, Be Master of Yourself, 1986). -Robert L. Backman

Mary Bradford

Writer, poet, one of the founders of AML

October 24, 1930-November 8, 2022

Obituary

Joyce Ellen Davis

Utah Poet of the Year (1985)

May 5, 1939-September 14, 2022

"Here is a poet of stature and sensitivity as well as a very great personality displaying insight and comprehension" (anonymous review of In Willy's House, 1984).

Obituary

"We come whirling down/ like lopsided angels, each of us/ a riddle on the family tree" (Excerpt from "Triptych"). -Joyce Ellen Davis

Laura Harris Hales

Scholar, founder of Latter-day Saints Perspectives Podcast

August 12, 1967-April 13, 2022

“As a writer and podcaster, Laura Hales...demonstrated how to do deep dives into fraught subjects while remaining personally loyal to the church" (Patrick Mason, New York Times obituary).

Obituary

"What I do have is a lot of questions. Fortunately, I was able to spend hours with scholars who have become my friends and have answered some of them" (Latter-day Saint Perspectives, final podcast, May 5, 2021). - Laura Harris Hales

Orrin Hatch

Poet, songwriter, senator, An American, a Mormon, and a Christian: What I Believe, Square Peg, Higher Laws: Understanding the Doctrines of Christ, Freedom’s Light (music by Janice Kapp Perry)

March 22, 1934-April 23, 2022

"Senator Hatch was also a man of deep faith; a gentle soul who wrote songs and poems, and shared them with friends, colleagues, and the world" (President Joe Biden, whitehouse.gov).

Obituary

"Politics sometimes is one simple vote,/ The vote which makes a difference,/ Which defeats or passes:/ That, upon which life and/or death depends,/ Unless oblivious to the end" ("Silver Fish" excerpt, BYU Studies, April 1983). -Orrin Hatch

Gail S. Halvorsen

Memoirist, The Candy Bomber: Untold Stories of the Berlin Airlift's Uncle Wiggly Wings

October 10, 2020-February 16, 2022

"Halvorsen's deeply human act [of dropping candy during the Berlin airlift] has never been forgotten" (Berlin Mayor Franziska Giffey, npr.org).

Obituary

"The airlift reminded me that the only way to fulfillment in life, real fulfillment, is to serve others” (smithsonianmag.com).-Gail S. Halvorsen

Kate Holbrook

Historian

January 13, 1972-August 20, 2022

"Kate... started her career as an historian of Latter-day Saint women.... She edited and/or wrote many books, articles, and other expressions of her careful thought and warm caring" (kateholbrook.com).

Website

"This story... [and others from At the Pulpit] can transform the way we see ourselves as Latter-day Saints, can expand the vision we have of how to be good and how to contribute to the world" (Video about At the Pulpit: 185 Years of Discourses by Latter-day Saint Women). -Kate Holbrook

Donald Ray Marshall

Author, critic, educator

November 25, 1934-October 25, 2022

[Don Marshall] "...asks: What is it that makes this person special, interesting, worthy of his or her own literature?" (Stephen L. Tanner, review, "A Rummage Sale with Music," Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought, Summer 1980).

Obituary

"Plums cooling in the sycamore shade/ through the willowed evening/ bob-o-links and crickets call them on.../ and carried with it the sweet scent of hay freshly mown and moist/ the tall cool pines" ("The Pines" excerpt from The Rummage Sale, 1972). -Donald Ray Marshall

James M. Paramore

General authority, sermons and speeches in Woman (1979) and BYU 19889-90 Devotional Fireside Speeches (1990)

May 6, 1928-March 17, 2022

"Elder Paramore’s life was defined by his willingness to serve in whatever capacity he was called to help advance the Lord’s work" (Church News, March 18, 2022).

Obituary

"May God bless us at this University [BYU] and in the mission field and always to build upon that understanding, that our lives can be safeguarded against the fiery darts of the devil, against temptation, against mediocrity" (from BYU Speeches, May 2, 1978). -James M. Paramore

Mimi Parker

Singer-songwriter, Low

September 15, 1967-November 5, 2022

Obituary

David Randall

Scholar, clarinettist, educator; Indiana University dissertation (1970), A Comprehensive Performance Project in Clarinet Literature with an Essay on the Clarinet Duet from ca. 1715 to ca. 1825.

January 26, 1941-January 26, 2022

"He traveled the world teaching, giving concerts and holding clarinet workshops sharing his love for classical music" (legacy.com).

Obituary

"Music is the power of emotion expressed in sound. It can enhance our inner being" (BYU Devotional, Sept. 16, 1997). -David Randall