Verna W. Goddard
Born: 1889
Called as Second Counselor in the Young Women's General Presidency: 1937
Called as First Counselor in the Young Women's General Presidency: 1944
Released: 1948
Died: 29 November 1949
Called as Second Counselor in the Young Women's General Presidency: 1937
Called as First Counselor in the Young Women's General Presidency: 1944
Released: 1948
Died: 29 November 1949
Biographical Articles
Improvement Era, December 1937, Greetings from the New Presidency of the Young Women's Mutual Improvement Association
Improvement Era, July 1948, Service to the Young Women of the Church through the Y.W.M.I.A. - The Retiring Presidency
Improvement Era, July 1948, Service to the Young Women of the Church through the Y.W.M.I.A. - The Retiring Presidency
"Greetings from the New Presidency of the Young Women's Mutual Improvement Association." Improvement Era. December 1937. pg. 741.
GREETINGS FROM THE NEW PRESIDENCY OF THE YOUNG WOMEN'S MUTUAL IMPROVEMENT ASSOCIATION "And whosoever will be chief among you let him be your servant, even as the Son of Man came not to be ministered unto but to minister and to give his life a ransom for many." In the call which has come to us we see opportunity for added service to you, our dear fellow workers. We accept our assignment in the spirit of service and in humility. We realize that in this Church the work of no one can be acceptable unless it is actuated by the Spirit of our Father in Heaven. There is love in our hearts for you and the M. I. A. cause. We appreciate your service and, if we succeed, one of the factors will be your loyalty and faithfulness. One of the joys in this work is being surrounded by intelligent, earnest, humble leaders and workers such as you are. We believe in the youth of the Church; we are sure they are going forward to fulfill a glorious destiny. At this Christmas season, when our hearts are mellowed and our thoughts turned to Him who taught by precept and example the greatest lesson of service, we send you greetings and hope that in our lives we may exemplify His teachings, and that we may do as. He did—lose ourselves in the service of mankind. Yours in devotion to the youth of the Church. Lucy G. Cannon Helen S. Williams Verna W. Goddard General Presidency of the Young Women's Mutual Improvement Association. |
HELEN S. WILLIAMS, FIRST COUNSELOR
LUCY GRANT CANNON, PRESIDENT
VERNA W. GOODARD, SECOND COUNSELOR
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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 |