May Anderson (June 8, 1864 – June 10, 1946) was the second general president of the children's Primary organization of

the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, informally known as the LDS Church or Mormon Church, is a nontrinitarian Christian church that considers itself to be the restoration of the original church founded by Jesus Christ. The ch ...

(LDS Church) between 1925 and 1939. Anderson also served as the first counselor to general Primary president Louie B. Felt from 1905 to 1925.

Early life

Anderson was born in

Liverpool Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a populat ...

, England, the third of Scott Anderson and Mary Bruce's 12 children. She emigrated to

Utah Territory The Territory of Utah was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from September 9, 1850, until January 4, 1896, when the final extent of the territory was admitted to the Union as the State of Utah, the 45th state ...

with her family after the family had been baptized by missionaries of the LDS Church. During the journey to Utah, Anderson met Louie B. Felt, who would become a lifelong friend and co-worker in the Primary of the church.

Involvement with the Primary Association

On October 5, 1890, Louie B. Felt, the general president of the Primary Association, asked Anderson to become a member of the general board of the organization. For the next forty-nine years, Anderson would work in some capacity in the Primary organization of the LDS Church. She was the general board's secretary for fifteen years (1890–1905), Felt's first counselor in the general presidency for twenty years (1905–25), and general president of the organization for fourteen years (1925–39). Anderson was also the first editor-in-chief of '' The Children's Friend'', the church's official magazine for children. During her tenure in the presidency of the Primary, Anderson initiated the Primary Children's Hospital in

Salt Lake City Salt Lake City (often shortened to Salt Lake and abbreviated as SLC) is the capital and most populous city of Utah, United States. It is the seat of Salt Lake County, the most populous county in Utah. With a population of 200,133 in 2020, th ...

, which is today part of

Intermountain Healthcare Intermountain Healthcare is a not-for-profit healthcare system and is the largest healthcare provider in the Intermountain West of the United States. Intermountain Healthcare provides ambulatory and acute health services, along with other medica ...

. Anderson also helped establish

kindergarten Kindergarten is a preschool educational approach based on playing, singing, practical activities such as drawing, and social interaction as part of the transition from home to school. Such institutions were originally made in the late 18th ce ...

s in

Utah Utah ( , ) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. Utah is a landlocked U.S. state bordered to its east by Colorado, to its northeast by Wyoming, to its north by Idaho, to its south by Arizona, and to it ...

. Anderson's successor to the Primary general presidency was May Green Hinckley. Anderson did not marry and died at

arteriosclerosis Arteriosclerosis is the thickening, hardening, and loss of elasticity of the walls of arteries. This process gradually restricts the blood flow to one's organs and tissues and can lead to severe health risks brought on by atherosclerosis, which ...

. She was buried at Salt Lake City.

Relationship with Louie Felt

Anderson had a lifelong friendship with fellow church leader Louie B. Felt. When Felt was suffering an illness in 1889, Felt's husband Joseph requested May to stay there to care for her while he was away on a business trip. During the period that Anderson was the editor-in-chief of '' The Children's Friend'', it published an anonymous account of the friendship that existed between Felt and Anderson; the article referred to the couple as the "

David and Jonathan David and Jonathan were, according to the Hebrew Bible's Books of Samuel, heroic figures of the Kingdom of Israel, who formed a covenant, taking a mutual oath. Jonathan was the son of Saul, king of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, and David w ...

of the Primary" organization. This has led two dissident Mormon historians to theorize that Anderson and Felt had a partially closeted lesbian relationship.Connell Hill O'Donovan (1992) ''"The Abominable and Detestable Crime Against Nature": A Brief History of Homosexuality and Mormonism, 1830-1980'' (Salt Lake City, Utah: Signature Books). D. Michael Quinn, ''Same-Sex Dynamics Among Nineteenth Century Americans: A Mormon Example'' (University of Illinois Press: Urbana). However, other LDS researchers have disagreed with this theory, calling it a distortion of LDS history and a misrepresention of facts.Vella Neil Evans, Women's Studies, University of Utah, at the Sunstone Symposium, Salt Lake City, August 16, 1996. Audio Tape No. 238 Two researchers have stated: "No evidence exists to lead us to believe that their relationship was anything but that of true and chaste Christian friendship and sisterly love."George L. Mitton, Rhett S. Jame
A Response to D. Michael Quinn's Homosexual Distortion of Latter-day Saint History
Review of ''Same-Sex Dynamics among Nineteenth-Century Americans: A Mormon Example'' by D. Michael Quinn Provo, Utah: Maxwell Institute, 1998. Pp. 141–263.

Notes

References

* ''The Children's Friend'', vol. 11, June 1912 (special edition dedicated to the life and work of May Anderson). * Conrad A. Harward
''A History of the Growth and Development of the Primary Association of the LDS Church from 1878 to 1928''
Master of Arts Thesis, Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah, 1976. * Mary R. Jack, "May Anderson: A Friend of the Children", ''The Children's Friend'', vol. 40, Apr. 1941, 148. *

External links