President and Sister Ezra Taft Benson spent part of their wedding anniversary Sept. 10 in the Salt Lake Temple, where they were married 64 years ago.
While in the temple on their anniversary, President and Sister Benson stopped by the sealing room in which they were married on Sept. 10, 1926, by Elder Orson F. Whitney of the Council of the Twelve.This year's anniversary commemoration also included a family gathering and a luncheon, complete with a decorated cake and ice cream.
And, as they have done for the past few years, President and Sister Benson posed for the Church News to take anniversary pictures. This year's photos were taken on the Church Office Building plaza, with the Salt Lake Temple in the background. President Benson once told the Church News that their family scrapbook doesn't have any pictures of them on their wedding day because they didn't have time to have pictures taken.
President and Sister Benson often have expressed their love and appreciation to each other, publicly and in their personal writings. Following are a few excerpts from journal entries and media interviews:
From President Benson's journal, Sunday, Sept. 10, 1939: "Today is the 13th anniversary of our marriage. What hopes and aspirations filled our hearts 13 years ago today. We were joined as man and wife in the House of the Lord through the power of the priesthood, our hearts filled with love and gratitude. During these happy 13 years our love for each other has increased.
"Flora has been and is a true and devoted companion, and I am grateful for her and the Power that brought us together. That same Power, it seems, has and does direct our lives."
From President Benson's journal, Sunday, Aug. 7, 1949: "She is a wonderful wife and mother and has been a great support to me ever since I met her and particularly since our marriage, which began 23 years [agoT, Sept. 10, 1926. May God bless her that her days may be prolonged to permit her to stand at my side so long as the Lord permits me to remain in mortality."
From President Benson's journal, Wednesday, Sept. 10, 1952: "It has been 26 years since Flora and I were united in marriage in the Salt Lake Temple. These have been 26 years of hard work, love and joyous association.
"I am grateful to the Lord for her and to her for her purity of life, constant devotion, integrity and loyalty.
"May the Lord bless her richly and extend her years and days at least one beyond my own."
From an interview conducted with Sister Benson by Capper's Farmer magazine, June 1955: "From the time when I first met my husband . . . I've come to admire his plain, genuine `goodness.' . . . I feel I became the wife of a good farmer and I was happy to live wherever he desired. It was our wish to make our own way together. We started from the bottom. At the birth of a baby it sometimes became necessary to sell a cow to tide us over. It was a new life for me, but I loved being with my husband."
From President Benson's journal, Tuesday, April 28, 1959: "In addition to all of the valued Latter-day Saint womanly virtues, my wife has a special gift or talent which I value highly. Call it judgment, intuition, or whatever - it is priceless. . . . It seems to be a combination of good judgment, perseverance, insight, courage and inspiration. In any event, I'm grateful for this `something special' with which my wife has been so richly endowed and which she inspires in me and our children."
In a Church News interview with Sister Benson (published April 20, 1974): "I would be willing to live in a log cabin if I could have my family and the gospel. Well, if the cabin is clean and I can have little curtains on the windows! . . . My greatest joy has been my family and Church."
In a Church News interview with President and Sister Benson (published Sept. 14, 1986), he said: "We've been true to each other. She's been an easy person to live with. . . . We've had a very happy life together. I hope I can always live to be worthy of my eternal companion. She says to the children and grandchildren, `I am so thankful for my wonderful husband. He is so kind and thoughtful of me.' As I hear her say this, I have the prayer in my heart that I can always live to be worthy of this choice daughter of our Heavenly Father, whom He has given to me as my eternal companion."
