With President Gordon B. Hinckley and Sister Marjorie P. Hinckley among the some 2,000 people looking on, Gov. Michael O. Leavitt and four other state officials took their oath of office Jan. 5. This is Gov. Leavitt's second term.
For only the second time, the Tabernacle Choir performed at a Utah State inaugural ceremony. The choir, accompanied by the Utah National Guard's 23rd Army Band, sang "America, the Beautiful" at the beginning of the ceremony and "The Battle Hymn of the Republic" at the conclusion. About mid-way into the ceremony, the choir sang without accompaniment the state song, "Utah, We Love Thee." The last time the choir performed at a Utah inauguration was 101 years ago when the state's first governor, Heber M. Wells, took the oath of office in the Tabernacle on Temple Square, Jan. 6, 1896.At this year's inauguration, Catholic Bishop George H. Niederauer of the Salt Lake Diocese offered the invocation. Elder M. Russell Ballard of the Quorum of the Twelve gave the benediction.
