In Bountiful, Utah, on Sunday, October 15, 2023, Kathleen Johnson Eyring, wife of President Henry B. Eyring, Second Counselor in the First Presidency of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, passed away peacefully. She was 82 years old.
Kathleen was born in San Francisco, California, on May 11, 1941, to J. Cyril and LaPrele Lindsay Johnson. She is remembered by family and friends as an outgoing and fun-loving young woman who excelled in sports and academics, serving as captain of her high school tennis team, the student body president and valedictorian. After high school, Kathleen continued her education at the University of California at Berkeley, where her testimony of the gospel of Jesus Christ and commitment to her beliefs deepened.
A young Harvard student named Henry Bennion Eyring observed her at a devotional she attended in 1961 while she was attending summer school in Boston. She immediately made an impression on him, he later recalled, and he remembers thinking, “If I could only be with her, I could be everything good I ever wanted to be.” The following week, they met, started dating, and got hitched on July 19, 1962, in the Logan Utah Temple.
Throughout Henry’s career and Church service, Kathleen, a talented writer, provided editorial advice. Later, she took official minutes for the monthly gatherings with the other spouses of General Authorities. Kathleen also contributed to the co-publication of a monthly family newsletter, wrote scripts for family occasions, and chronicled family recollections. In 1979, she published a young adult book that earned her a state award for young adult literature.
