Heber J. Grant was the 7th Prophet of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.
Heber was the first prophet of the Church to be born in Utah. He was born in Salt Lake City on November 22, 1856 to Jedediah Morgan Grant and Rachel Ridgeway Ivins Grant.
Heber’s father was a counselor to Brigham Young and served as the mayor of Salt Lake City. Heber’s father died from a lung ailment, only eight days after Heber was born. The death of his father left Heber the only child of his young mother.
Heber and his mother had to move from the home in Salt Lake City to the “widows cabin” where Rachel began sewing to earn money for their family.
Heber J. Grant married Lucy Stringham on November 1, 1877 when he was twenty years old.
In 1880 Heber was called to be president of the Tooele Stake, and he was only twenty-four years old. While in Tooele Heber’s wife Lucy died of a stomach ailment. She had been suffering with the problem for years, and passed away. This left Heber in a deep depression, this took a terrible toll on his health.
In 1882, when Heber J. Grant was only twenty-six years old, he was called to be an apostle by George Q. Cannon. In 1916, after 34 years of serving in the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, he was called as President the Quorum of the Twelve apostles and two years later he was ordained as the seventh prophet of The Church.
President Heber J. Grant practiced polygamy, and married three women. All three women were school teachers and he had twelve children. President Grant was the last prophet of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints to practice polygamy.
President Grant was away from his family often and would write his family letters. There are over fifty-thousand letters from Heber stored in the Church Archives.
Heber J. Grant opened the Japanese Mission in 1901 to 1903, then served as a mission president of the European Mission from 1903 to 1905.
President Grant dedicated three temples: the Laie Hawaii Temple, Cardston Temple, and the Mesa Arizona Temple. These temples are the first dedicated temples built outside of Utah.
Heber J. Grant also enjoyed visiting with the Presidents of The United States. He developed friendships with Presidents Warren G. Harding, Calvin Coolidge, Herbert Hoover, and Franklin D. Roosevelt.
Heber J. Grant died May 14, 1945 in Salt Lake City, Utah and is buried in the Salt Lake City Cemetery.
President Grant had served in the Church for sixty-five years of his life!