Short Stories and Essays

MY FIRST ENCOUNTER WITH A LIVING PROPHET

I was baptized into The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on May 5, 1973. The prophet and president of the Church at the time of my baptism was President Harold B. Lee. However, he would die the day after Christmas that same year and be succeeded by President Spencer W. Kimball.
 
In early July of 1975, my wife Dianne and I had been in the Church a little over two years. I was serving as second counselor in the presidency of the little Wetumpka Branch that had been formed the preceding October. My position was certainly not a prominent or high profile calling in the Church. Dianne was pregnant with our third child, a son who would be born in November. Our branch was part of a mission district that was supervised by the mission president in Tallahassee, Florida. That month, the incoming mission president, Stanley Kimball, replaced the outgoing mission president, Spencer H. Osborn.
 
One of the members of the Wetumpka Branch was our family friend Susan Curlee, a rare fourth generation Alabama member of the Church—using a matriarchal line entirely. Susan had a sister named Brenda Hamm who was living in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Brenda was also an active member of the Church. Susan suggested to her sister Brenda that she contact me with regard to a special need that Brenda had mentioned to Susan.
 
President Spencer W. Kimball was planning a trip to Chattanooga for the purpose of dedicating a new chapel there. Prophets don’t generally dedicate chapels, but President Kimball had made a commitment to a friend before he became president of the Church, and true to his word, he was going to fulfill his promise.
 
Perhaps Susan told Brenda that Dianne and I had recently purchased a brand new gray 1975 Ford Granada, a sedan with a maroon-colored vinyl top. That fact was relevant because Brenda had told Susan that Brenda had been assigned to find a suitable member to chauffeur a staff person in President Kimball’s small entourage during his upcoming visit to Chattanooga. Brenda was looking for someone outside of her own ward so that she would not be required to choose between several of her ward-member friends who were pressing her for the assignment. I immediately accepted Brenda’s invitation to be that chauffeur.
 
The color of the car is not the same, but below is a photo of an unknown salesman with a 1975 Ford Granada sedan of the type we had purchased from Bernard and Jimmy Collier at Collier Ford in Wetumpka. It was the first year that Granadas were made and sold.

Dianne and I made a random reservation at a decent Chattanooga hotel. We decided that we should take with us Kalvin Jones, a priest in our branch whom we were encouraging to serve a mission. We three later traveled four hours in our new car the 240 miles to Chattanooga, arriving on the afternoon of Friday, July 25, 1975. Susan Curlee and her husband Alan also traveled to Chattanooga, but they did not need to stay in a hotel since Susan’s sister was living there.
 
Below is a photo of President and Sister Kimball taken upon their arrival in Chattanooga. They were being transported to Chattanooga by a privately-owned jet which would take them to other destinations during this trip. Left to right in the photo are Sister Camilla Eyring Kimball, President Spencer Woolley Kimball, and Brother D. Arthur Haycock, the personal secretary for President Kimball. The remainder of those traveling in the small jet with President Kimball consisted of Elder James Isaac Gibson (Regional Representative and Nevada State Senator), Brother Jerry P. Cahill (Press Secretary in the Church’s Public Communications Department), and Gerry Avant (Georgia native and Church News writer). I was surprised to learn upon arrival that we happened to be staying in the same hotel where President and Sister Kimball were staying.

I was also surprised to see that someone else I knew was staying in the same hotel. Our district president in Montgomery at that time was an air force colonel named Gayle Heckel. He had learned of President Kimball’s coming to Chattanooga, and President Heckel was determined to finagle an audience with President Kimball that very evening.
 
President Heckel was not the least bit bashful about enthusiastically approaching President Kimball in the hallway, telling him the church position he held, and asking if he could meet with the president. I remember at the time being reminded of Zacchaeus’ climbing a tree to see the Savior. Of course, President Heckel wanted to do much more than simply gaze upon President Kimball.
 
President Kimball had an extremely tight schedule but was willing to somehow meet President Heckel’s spontaneous request. To accommodate President Heckel, President Kimball decided to invite President Heckel to have evening prayer with him and Sister Kimball in their room. In fact, President Kimball later asked President Heckel to give that evening prayer.
 
I learned later about President Heckel’s urgent agenda. He laid before President Kimball his best-case scenario for the Montgomery Alabama District being upgraded to a stake. It would be a stake whose boundaries extended to the Georgia line, the Florida line, the Mississippi line, and to the north line of Chilton County.
 
Had it not been for that meeting, I do not believe the Montgomery Alabama Stake would have come into being as soon as it did—early November 1975, only slightly more than three months from the extemporaneous meeting. Elder LeGrand Richards of the Twelve, a former president of the Southern States Mission, would be assigned to form the stake.
 
While we were in Chattanooga at the same hotel, President Heckel pulled me aside and called me to serve as first counselor in the district mission presidency. In addition, I began serving thereafter as the branch mission leader in the fledgling Wetumpka Branch. When the Montgomery Alabama Stake was organized three months later, I was ordained a Seventy and called to serve as one of the Seven Presidents of the Stake Seventies Quorum, a position that no longer exists.
 
I was assigned to be the escort and driver for Jerry P. Cahill who, as I previously stated, served as press secretary in the Church’s Public Communications Department. In connection with my duties, I made it a point to stay in the background, keep my mouth shut, observe President Kimball all that I could, and have Jerry P. Cahill where he was supposed to be when he was supposed to be there. My friend, Church News writer Gerry Avant, did not even know that I was a part of the transportation services. I did, however, wherever we went, get in every line that was asked to be formed for shaking hands with the prophet. Only one other person was able to get in more handshakes than me—my good friend Alan Curlee.
 
The weekend with Brother Cahill passed speedily by for me. By the way, I would see Brother Cahill again about 35 years later when he was serving as a sealer in the Salt Lake Temple wherein he conducted a sealing session of which I was a part.
 
The chapel dedication took place early on Saturday morning. I drove Brother Cahill to the chapel, and there was plenty of room in the car for Dianne and our young friend Kalvin. I still distinctly remember President Kimball’s kindness to the young deacon who handed him a program when he entered the new chapel. It is hard to put into words the soothing kindness that flowed from President Kimball’s lips when he said “Thank you, kind sir” to the young red-headed deacon who placed a program in President Kimball’s outstretched hand.
 
Following the dedication of the chapel, another meeting was shortly thereafter convened in a large downtown public auditorium. President Kimball was the sole speaker. I was a witness to an interesting occurrence.
 
Seated directly in front of me, amongst the large crowd, were two men. I later learned that they were members of the Church of Christ. During the middle of President Kimball’s address, the two men abruptly stood up and interrupted President Kimball’s presentation with shouting and ranting—yelling loudly short phrases like “false prophet, fraud, imposter, liar,” etc., causing an unexpected disruption.
 
When they started their antics, President Kimball simply stepped away from the microphone and waited for the local security and police to escort the men out of the auditorium. That probably took a minute and a half to accomplish I suppose. President Kimball remained calmly at his spot.
 
After the two demonstrators had been forcefully removed from the building, President Kimball gracefully stepped back to the microphone and picked up where he left off as if absolutely nothing had ever happened. It was a class act. Not only did President Kimball not retaliate, he never so much as even mentioned the two men or the episode in any manner. I was mightily impressed with his calm nonreaction to the intrusive hecklers.
 
After this meeting, President Kimball needed to press on to Nashville where he had a meeting with government dignitaries and also with none other than country culture celebrity Minnie Pearl.
 
The private jet was parked at the Chattanooga airport in such a way that it was necessary for the passengers to walk a couple hundred feet or so from a secluded part of the terminal to the jet. For some reason there was a slight delay before the passengers were allowed to cross the tarmac and board the jet, so there I was in the presence of the prophet and his wife and some of the others who would be boarding the plane.
 
I introduced Kalvin Jones to President Kimball and told him that we were hoping Kalvin would serve a mission. President Kimball was silent after looking at Kalvin. President Kimball seemed to know that Kalvin was not going to serve a mission, and he didn’t. Kalvin and I asked President Kimball to autograph our chapel dedication programs for us, and he was most accommodating. I have saved through the years the white ballpoint pen with which he signed my program.
 
Below is a photo of President Kimball returning my pen to me right after signing our programs:

After President Kimball finished signing our programs, and we were just standing there, I looked him in the eye and spontaneously said, “I sure do love you.” That was no exaggeration. During the year and a half that he had served as prophet, he had taught me much as I listened to and read his talks. I had also learned many important things that were passed down from him in our leadership meetings. I was touched deeply by his most humble response to my expression of love: “Thank you so very much.” I was 28 years of age then. I am 75 years old now, and I have never forgotten the experience.
 
It came time for the passengers to walk to and board the private jet. Somehow, it fell upon me to escort Sister Camilla Kimball to the plane. We led the procession to the plane. About ten paces behind us, a uniformed law enforcement officer provided arm support for 80-year-old President Kimball.
 
What an honor for me! Sister Kimball and I walked arm-in-arm across the runway for quite a distance. There was time to carry on some conversation. I asked Sister Kimball, who had been married to President Kimball for well over half a century, “What is it like being married to a prophet?” She looked at me and responded almost curtly with a slight grin, “He wasn’t a prophet when I married him.” I caught her drift. I knew what she meant, and I was relieved and comforted to learn that prophets are not born even near perfect. They also have to personally improve their characters layer upon layer over a lifetime. Like me, they too learn obedience by the things which they suffer, although they seem to do much better at doing it.
 
I watched Sister Kimball climb the few steps into the plane. A rare privilege and blessing had come my way, and I was grateful.
 
About ten years later, President Kimball died. His funeral in the Tabernacle was televised for the members of the Church. I watched his queenly, dignified widow, Camilla, being escorted arm-in-arm down the aisle of that historic building. It reminded me of the unforgettable day that we had walked arm-in-arm.

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