Mary Ellen W. Smoot loves studying her family history. She feels searching her "roots" helps her ponder her life, realize what brings her the greatest happiness and discover the greatness of her heritage.
"The majority of the pioneers, even though they went through terrible hardship, never lost their testimony of the gospel of Jesus Christ," explained Sister Smoot, who was sustained April 5 as Relief Society general president.Sister Smoot shares her love of pioneer history with her family. "One of the thrilling things I did for my family is at Christmas time I made a legacy book. I pulled from all the histories little one-page stories about grandparents for our grandchildren, like bedtime stories."
She also gives tablets with chapter headings to elderly members of the family to write their personal history.
One pioneer ancestor in particular has influenced Sister Smoot - her great-great-great grandmother, Mary Stretton Blood. The pioneer ancestor and her husband, William Blood, and their three children joined the Church in England and immigrated to Nauvoo, Ill.
Sister Smoot related how the pioneer family's joy soon turned to tragedy. Within weeks of arriving, William Blood became ill and died.
"Here was Mary with three children, a son and two daughters, in Nauvoo," Sister Smoot said. "You would think she would gather up her belongings and go back to England, wouldn't you?"
She didn't, Sister Smoot added. Mary remarried and, later, helped settle Kaysville, Utah. "How could she ever have known that in her posterity there would be a governor of Utah, Henry Blood?"
And, probably more important to today's Relief Society sisters, how could that young pioneer woman have known that her great-great-great granddaughter would one day bear the mantle once held by Emma Smith, the first Relief Society general president? Sister Smoot was sustained as the auxiliary's 13th general president after the release of Elaine L. Jack, who served as Relief Society general president from 1990 to 1997.
Until her new calling, Sister Smoot and her husband, Stanley M. Smoot, were serving as directors of Church hosting, a position they had held since 1993. She explained she felt her calling as Church hostess was "essential" in preparing her to lead the world's oldest women's organization.
"We've hosted people from all over the world," Sister Smoot said. "Just last year, we hosted about 55 ambassadors. We've hosted Lady [Margaret] Thatcher. We've hosted the king of Tonga. We've hosted [Mikhail] Gorbachev.
Reared in Clearfield in northern Utah's Davis County, Sister Smoot often refers to herself as "just a Davis County girl."
This "Davis County girl" seems comfortable in the company of the renowned or the most humble. She learned at a young age the importance of work and the worth of the individual - regardless of position and recognition.
"We lived right next to our little church," she related. "My mother's family was in the canning business, and Father worked for them. So our home was a little home between the canning factory on one side and the church on the other side. Across the street was a schoolhouse. That was the little world I grew up in in Clearfield, Utah."
Her parents, Melvin and LaVora Smith Wood, instilled the best of two worlds in their daughter - one of six children in the family, which included no sons. "My father had a sense of humor. He never took life too seriously. My mother was more serious than my father. She was a very diligent, detailed person. They were both caring, loving people."
Vivid in Sister Smoot's memories are the gardens - filled with colorful flowers - her father planted. "Every spring, I assisted my father in putting in a garden and watching the flowers grow.
"He had chickens, and he always had a pig and a cow. That was our life. There was a little shed behind our house. There was his garden area and then a gate and a little chicken coup and the little barn. I remember going down the little rock pathway down to the chicken coup. Our (including her sisters) responsibility was to gather the eggs and feed the chickens."
When she and her sisters were old enough, they went to work in the family cannery. "Every time I go down to Welfare Square," Sister Smoot related, "it brings back many memories. That's how I grew up."
On Halloween day when she was in the 9th grade, she was visiting at a friend's home. In walked the student body president of Davis High School, Stanley M. Smoot. The young girl quickly developed a crush on him.
Later, the two dated off and on, but she didn't take it too seriously until her senior year, when Brother Smoot, then attending Utah State University in Logan, Utah, was involved in a serious car accident and broke his back. A friend tracked her down and said, "Stan's very serious in the hospital. He has called your name."
The young man did recover and served a full-time mission to Hawaii. In the meantime, Sister Smoot attended Utah State University. On Oct. 8, 1953, the two were married in the Salt Lake Temple. Today, the Smoots have seven children and 44 grandchildren.
For the first two years of their marriage, Brother Smoot served in the U.S. Army. While at Camp Roberts near San Luis Obispo, Calif., he made the Army baseball team and was transferred to Colorado Springs, Colo., where he played with Billy Martin, who later played for the New York Yankees.
After Brother Smoot's discharge, the Smoots moved back to Utah, settling in Centerville, and he finished his education at the University of Utah.
From 1983 to 1986, she served with her husband when he presided over the Ohio Columbus Mission and later the Ohio Akron Mission. After returning home, they began holding callings with Church Public Affairs, until their calling as Church host and hostess.
One of her most poignant memories occurred with the wife of the ambassador from South Africa. Brother and Sister Smoot were hosting the ambassador and his wife and took them to hear President Gordon B. Hinckley speak in the Tabernacle. The next day, while meeting with the First Presidency, the ambassador's wife asked Sister Smoot, "Can I say something [to President Hinckley]?"
Sister Smoot motioned to the prophet, and the South Africa woman said, with tears running down her cheeks: "When I met you in the Tabernacle, the feeling came over me so strong, you are a man of God. I'm having the same feeling now."
Regardless of whether she's with world leaders or Church members, Sister Smoot says she'll always be "just a little Davis County girl."
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ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
Mary Ellen W. Smoot
Family: Born in Ogden, Utah, to Melvin and LaVora Smith Wood. Reared in Clearfield, Utah. Married Stanley M. Smoot. Parents of seven children: Stana Kjar, Steve, Sharm, Shauna Essig, Shane, Scott, and Shandell; 44 grandchildren.
Education: Studied elementary education at Utah State University.
Community Service: Organizer of Centerville (Utah) Historical Society, served on board of the South Davis Community Hospital, on the board of the local chapter of the United Way, and wrote a history of Centerville.
Church Service: Served with husband as directors of Church Hosting and when he was president of Ohio Columbus and Ohio Akron missions (1983-1986); on the editorial board of The Friend magazine; as a Relief Society president; and as a member of the Church Correlation Writing Committee.