A Photograhic Essay
By Maurine and Scot Proctor

Surrounded by the family for whom she was “the lodestar,” Marjorie Pay Hinckley, wife of President Gordon B. Hinckley, passed away at 5:05 p.m. on Tuesday, April 6, 2004 of causes incident to age.  This is a significant date that would not have been lost on President Hinckley, who has a passion for Church history. It is the both anniversary of the founding of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in 1830 and the birth of Christ more than 2,000 years ago.

click photos to enlarge

Sister Hinckley, always a bright light, arrives in Kirtland, Ohio.

Church members did not know that Sister Hinckley was failing until the concluding session of conference on Sunday.  After presiding over conference with the same warmth, assurance, and prophetic insight Church members count on, President Hinckley finally confided the sobering news about Sister Hinckley’s ill health in the last session on Sunday.

Together forever.  Kirtland, Ohio.

He said that she was missing attending conference for the first time in 46 years, explaining that on the way home from their January trip to Accra, Ghana for the dedication of the temple, “she collapsed with weariness.  She’s had a difficult time ever since.”

Even with a cane, President Hinckley always offers his arm to Sister Hinckley.  Kirtland, Ohio.

I guess the clock is winding down, and we do not know how to rewind it," President Hinckley told the congregation. "It is a somber time for me.”

Happiness always surrounds this couple.  Kirtland, Ohio.

In a conference where leaders often cited the perilous, spiritually dangerous nature of our times and pointed to stable families as the refuge and hope of the future, President Hinckley’s devoted love of his wife was a tangible representation of the power of which they spoke.

President and Sister Hinckley are always kind and are quick to share humor and love to the youth of the Church.  Kirtland, Ohio.

Marjorie often accompanied President Hinckley on his trips to visit Church members around the world and often became his visual aid.  Addressing the Saints in Moscow in September 2002, President Hinckley began by calling her up to the stand by him.

Side by side in Moscow, Russia.

“I want to invite my wife to come to the stand here for a minute.  This is my babushka. [Everyone laughed.]  We’re both getting old…She’s the mother of five children, a grandmother of 25 children, a great grandmother of 35 great grandchildren, and the end is not yet.  Well, I just want you to take a look at this dear, elderly lady to whom I’ve been married for [then] 65 years.  We’ve had a good marriage, and we hope that it will go on.

President and Sister Hinckley are a great example of a great marriage to all the world.  Moscow, Russia.

We have a daughter with us, our youngest daughter.  She came along to take care of her mother, and her mother came along to take care of me.”

My favorite picture I’ve ever taken of Marjorie Hinckley—The picture of kindness.  Nauvoo, Illinois.

That her radiant, kind face was a living sermon was driven home to us at Meridian one day when we posted on the magazine a close-up of her that we had photographed at the Nauvoo Temple dedication.  The same day we had an article about a new book suggesting that Mormons were not Christians.  One of our readers wrote a letter to the editor suggesting the best thing we could do to convince the authors otherwise would be to send them this picture of Marjorie Hinckley.  “How could anyone look at that face and not know that this is a Christian?” they asked.

Marjorie Hinckley—A Woman of faith, hope and charity.  Nauvoo, Illinois.

Click here to go on the Part Two of “Remembering Marjorie Pay Hinckley”