Lucy T. Andersen
Born: 26 August 1900
Called as Second Counselor in the Young Women's General Presidency: July 5, 1944
Released: 1948
Died: June 1978
Called as Second Counselor in the Young Women's General Presidency: July 5, 1944
Released: 1948
Died: June 1978
Biographical Articles
Improvement Era, August 1944, Lucy Taylor Andersen
Improvement Era, July 1948, Service to the Young Women of the Church through the Y.W.M.I.A.
Improvement Era, July 1948, Service to the Young Women of the Church through the Y.W.M.I.A.
Larson, Helena W. "Lucy Taylor Andersen." Improvement Era. August 1944. pg. 493, 524-525.
LUCY TAYLOR ANDERSEN Second Counselor in the General Presidency of the Y.W.M.I.A. By Helena W. Larson General Secretary, Y.W.M.I.A. To those who have worked with Lucy Taylor Andersen and have seen her never-tiring zeal for Church work, her vast resources of new ideas and enthusiasms, her genuine love of people and desire to help them, it was no surprise to learn of her appointment July 5, 1944, to the position of second counselor in the general presidency of the Young Women's Mutual Improvement Association. Her Church service has been so large a part of her life that this new responsibility seemed the logical step forward. This month marks the publication of a new Bee Keepers' Handbook and a Bee Hive Girls' Handbook—the work of the Bee Hive committee, but primarily of Sister Andersen who as chairman of that committee has written all of the lesson material. She says of her work, "I am no writer; yet as I would sit at my typewriter hour after hour and day after day, inspiration seemed to come to me, and I was surprised on reading the work afterwards to find how many new thoughts were included there," Those who have read any of the prodigious number of lessons (ninety) which she has written for the three years of the Bee Hive work attest to the inspiration shown in her writings and the outstanding help her clear, complete guides will be to all bee keepers. Thousands of girls throughout the Church will be inspired and become finer in the months and years to come because of the valuable material she is thus putting into their hands. So that you may know Sister Andersen and thus appreciate her as her coworkers do, let us take you back to her first Church service. It was at the age of thirteen that she became a teacher in the Sunday School, and ever since she has been active in one or more of the auxiliaries. Perhaps her love of the gospel has been strengthened by her unusual ancestry, for her grandfather on her mother's side is President Heber J. Grant, and on her father's side she claims President John Taylor as her great-grandfather. Her father is John H. Taylor, one of the First Council of the Seventy, and her mother, Rachel Grant Taylor, was for twenty-seven years an active member of the Y.W. M.I.A. General Board. Mrs. Taylor says that her daughter was of great help to her during those years, giving her the reactions of the girls to the various programs planned for them in the M.I.A. Sister Andersen remembers vividly her experiences as a Bee Hive girl, especially a pageant held on the front lawn of the L.D.S. Business College. In it she represented the Spirit of Womanhood. Sister Andersen graduated from the L.D.S. High School and went on to the University of Utah, also acting as a part-time secretary for President Grant who was then the president of the Council of the Twelve. In 1923 her parents were called to preside over the Northern States Mission and Lucy went with them. Her brother, Heber, who was on a mission in Holland later joined them. In Chicago Sister Andersen worked full time for over two years in the office as her father's secretary. Later she traveled as a regular missionary throughout Indiana and Wisconsin. While in Chicago, she met Waldo M. Andersen whom she married in 1926. Two years later they moved back to Salt Lake City. There the couple's son, John, was born. They have lived in the Ensign Stake ever since where Brother Andersen is at present in the stake presidency. Shortly after her return to her native city Sister Andersen was called to the Ensign Stake Y.W.M.I.A. board as Lion House representative. The following year she was appointed to the Bee Hive committee and still later to the Gleaner committee. It was while she served in the latter capacity (June 1937) that she had charge of the M Men-Gleaner banquet held at the Lion House during June conference. To it came the M Men and the Gleaner presidents or their representatives from every stake in the Church. In December 1937, she was called to the general board of the Y.W.M.I.A. and was made a member of the Bee Hive committee, later becoming chairman of it. At the time of her recent appointment she was also a member of the visual aid committee. In addition, for the past two years, she has served as a regular missionary on Temple Square. Sister Andersen is unusually gifted in many lines—one of which is the field of art. Her water colors and deft brush have created many unforgettable scenes which brighten countless homes. Last Christmas she sent original paintings as Christmas cards—just the right size for framing and hanging in a choice spot. Some of her lovely work hangs in the General Board Office, Bishop's Building, Salt Lake City, Utah. Also two of her paintings are in the president's office at the Logan Temple. Really to know and appreciate Sister Andersen one should know her innate love of people and her sincere desire to help them. General board work is strenuous at best, but she finds time to help others as well as carry on her regular duties. When a recent board meeting was held, she brought some of her delectable lemon chiffon pies for one of the members to take home, knowing that because of sickness in the home, the meeting and extra work, this member would not have had time to prepare such delicacies for her family. When the proofreader of the current Bee Keepers' Handbook found it almost impossible to meet the press deadline because of home responsibilities, Sister Andersen immediately and eagerly offered to tend her children and clean her house that the work might go forward. Thus you may readily see that, coupled with her outstanding talents and abilities, is a lovable human being who as an executive will be a distinct asset and help to the M.I.A. in every respect. |
LUCY TAYLOR ANDERSEN
LUCY ANDERSEN AS A CHILD
Helena W. Larson and Sister Andersen with the new Bee Hive band and the Bee Hive Symbol book kept in the general board office.
Sister Andersen mounting one of her innumerable paintings.
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Josephson, Marba C. "Service to the Young Women of the Church through the Y.W.M.I.A. - The Retiring Presidency." Improvement Era. July 1948. pg. 430, 476.
Service to the Young Women of the Church Through the Y.W.M.I.A. By Marba C. Josephson Associate Editor The Retiring Presidency For thirty-one years General President Lucy Grant Cannon has labored in the presidency or on the general board of the Young Women's Mutual Improvement Association. The news of her release has touched the hearts of the many Mutual workers throughout the Church who have been privileged to partake of her fine spirit and share her testimony. Sister Cannon has exemplified the gospel in all of her activities. Her faith has been unwavering; her spirit undaunted in trying to bring principles of correct living to the young women of the Church. She began her active Church service as a Sunday School teacher; she then served as organist, secretary, and counselor in the Primary Association. At the age of eighteen she was made a ward president of Y.W.M.I.A., and from that time forward, she has been engaged in Mutual activity with the exception of three years. In 1901, she filled a mission to the Western States, one of the first unmarried women to go on a regular mission. In 1917, she was called to the general board of the Y.W.M.I.A. She has acted as counselor to two presidents, Martha Home Tingey and Ruth May Fox, until she was called to be general president, October 29, 1937, which position she held until April 1948, when her health made it wise for her to be released. Together with her appointment as general president of the Mutual, Sister Cannon became the associate manager of The Improvement Era and has served in that capacity since that time. She has long been interested in the welfare of the Era, for at the time when her father, Heber J. Grant, decided that the Era was essential to the Church, she with her sisters addressed and stamped thousands of letters to the membership of the Church, urging their support of this vital magazine. During the trip to Europe which she made with her father, President Heber J. Grant, she wrote a series of articles titled, "The Log of a European Tour," which ran in The Improvement Era and revealed delightful qualities of mind and spirit as well as her indomitable faith. Married to George J. Cannon in the Salt Lake Temple, she is the mother of seven children. She has lived to the heritage that is hers as daughter of President Heber J. Grant and Lucy Stringham—and by dint of her own fortitude Sister Cannon has added to that heritage. We can be sure that Sister Cannon will carry into her new endeavors the same diligence that she has evidenced thus far in her life. While her activities may not be so widespread as they have been as general president of the Y. W. M. I. A. which has carried her into nearly every stake and mission in the Church, they will be still conducive of great good among those with whom she labors. VERNA Wright Goddard, first counselor to Sister Cannon, has made a place for herself among the young women of the Church. A daughter of Kindness Badger and Joseph A. Wright, she, like Sister Cannon, early became active in the Church, first as a Sunday School teacher and chorister at the age of fourteen. As ward choir leader she was given a silver cup for her efficiency. She also worked as counselor in the Primary Association and as teacher in the Religion Class. Following her graduation from the Latter-day Saint University, she studied nursing under Dr. Margaret S. Roberts. She was a guide on Temple Block, where she met J. Percy Goddard, whom she married in the Salt Lake Temple, and became the mother of four children, two boys and two girls, three of whom have served on missions for the Church. Following her marriage she became active in her new ward where she served as Gleaner teacher and as Relief Society leader in theology. Sister Goddard's work in the Relief Society culminated in a pageant called the "Gospel Dispensation." She was also in the presidency of the ward Y.W.M.I.A., and for the Mutual she wrote and directed many ward shows. In 1935, she was called to serve as president of the Liberty Stake Y.W.M.I.A. During this time she also acted as leader of the Women's Division in the Sunday School in her ward and as chairman of the Brighton Girls' Home. She was called to the position of second counselor when Sister Cannon became president, and upon the release of Sister Helen Williams in July 1944, Sister Goddard became first counselor in the presidency. Lucy Taylor Andersen was appointed to the general presidency as second counselor to Sister Cannon July 5, 1944, when Helen Spencer Williams was released as a result of ill health.. Sister Andersen, like the other members of the presidency, began her Church activity in her youth, for she was only thirteen when she became a teacher in the Sunday School. From that time until the present she has been active in the various organizations of the Church. While she was attending the University of Utah, she acted as parttime secretary to her grandfather, Heber J. Grant, then president of the Council of the Twelve. When her father, John H. Taylor, a member of the Y.M.M.I.A. general board, and later called to the First Council of the Seventy, and her mother, Rachel Grant Taylor, who served altogether for twenty-seven years on the Y.W.M.I.A. general board, were called to head the Northern States Mission, Lucy accompanied them. For two years she served in the office as her father's secretary. She later acted as a regular missionary throughout Indiana and Wisconsin. It was during her stay in Chicago that she met Waldo M. Andersen, of Logan, Utah, whom she married in 1926 in the Salt Lake Temple. They have one son, who has gone into the same mission field in which his grandparents and parents served. Shortly after the Andersens established themselves in Salt Lake City, Sister Andersen was called to the stake board of the Y.W.M.I.A., first as Lion House representative and later as Bee Hive and Gleaner leader. She was called to the general board of the Y.W.M.I.A. in December 1937, and was appointed to the Bee Hive committee, later being named its chairman, which position she held until she was called to the general presidency of the organization. In addition to her Mutual work she has been a regular missionary on Temple Square. The general board was released with the general presidency at the April conference. The general board released is constituted of: Ethel S. Anderson, Minnie E. Anderson, Norma P. Anderson, Alicebeth W. Ashby, Marjorie Ball, Clarissa A. Beesley, Emily H. Bennett, Hazel B. Bowen, Carol H. Cannon, Leora C. Cropper, Virginia F. Cutler, lone Duncan, Ruth H. Funk, Irene Hailes, Gladys E. Harbertson, Polly R, Hardy, Winnifred C. Jardine, Freda Jensen, Katie C. Jensen, Marba C. Josephson, Ann C. Larson, Helena W. Larson, Florence B. Pinnock, Lillian Schwendiman, Erma R. Stevens, Sarah D. Summerhays, Bertha K. Tingey, Marie Waldram, Margaret N. Wells, Vella H. Wetzel, Virginia Wigginton, Erda Williams, and Sara D. Yates. |
LUCY GRANT CANNON
President VERNA W. GODDARD
First Counselor LUCY T. ANDERSEN
Second Counselor |