In June 2023, then-94-year-old President M. Russell Ballard climbed the stairs of Carthage Jail, in Carthage, Illinois, and sat in the room where his great-great grandfather Hyrum Smith and great-great-granduncle Joseph Smith were martyred in 1844.
“This is a very tender place to be,” he said on that summer afternoon. “For me, and for all who have the privilege of coming and visiting this place where two of the greatest men that ever lived lost their lives. When you are in this room, in a lot of ways, I think we are on sacred ground.”
The meaningful visit to Carthage Jail was shown as part of a never-before-seen video presentation featuring the late President Ballard of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles at RootsTech’s Family Discovery Day on Saturday, March 2. The film was recorded at various Church history sites, including Kirtland, Ohio, and Nauvoo and Carthage, Illinois, prior to his death on Nov. 12, 2023.
Elder Gerrit W. Gong of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles introduced the Family Discovery Day video.
President Ballard and Family Discovery Day
Over the last several years, President Ballard — as acting president of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles — had assigned an Apostle to present at Family Discovery Day.
As President Ballard considered the request for RootsTech 2024, Jen Allen, director of RootsTech, was surprised when President Ballard asked if he could do it.
“We thought, ‘Oh, well, we didn’t even know that was an option. Yes, of course, we would love to film you and capture your story,’” she told the Church News.
Family memories
The video began with President Ballard standing in the Salt Lake Cemetery and placing a bouquet of flowers at the grave of his late wife, Sister Barbara Bowen Ballard, who died on Oct. 1, 2018.
“She is my treasure,” he said. “You come to the gravesite of a loved one, and then you start to think about everything and what they mean to you in your life. I miss her, and I know she is waiting for me.”
President Ballard reflected on growing up at 1399 Butler Avenue in Salt Lake City with the guidance of “wonderful,” loving parents and the influence of good friends.
He shared memories of his grandfather, Elder Melvin J. Ballard, an Apostle who died when he was a boy. Since his parents were not active members of the Church, he lamented that he never heard his grandfather give an address.
President Ballard was 11 years old when his grandfather died. He remembers attending his funeral in a “jammed” Salt Lake Tabernacle and how people lined up along the street on the way to the cemetery.
“I saw the adoration that people had for my grandfather and it dawned on me that he was someone very special,” he said. “That stimulated an interest in wanting to learn everything I could about him.”
That pivotal experience motivated President Ballard to learn about other members of his family.
The pink cashmere sweater
Near the end of his young-adult mission, President Ballard was in Edinburgh, Scotland, when he saw a pink cashmere sweater in a shop window and decided to buy it. When he got home, he told his mother it was for the girl he would marry. Later he met Barbara at a dance at the University of Utah, and eventually he gave her the sweater at Christmastime.
The couple was married Aug. 28, 1951, in the Salt Lake Temple.
“One of the great and most important experiences in my life was kneeling at the Salt Lake Temple and holding the hand of Barbara Bowen, and [then-Elder] Harold B. Lee performed our marriage and sealed us as husband and wife for time and all eternity,” President Ballard said. “That was a moment as clear to me today as if it happened yesterday.”
The best gift President Ballard said he and his wife could give their children were good memories. One way they did this was by visiting every one of the major Church history sites.
“I had them with me in places that mattered most,” he said.
Kirtland, Ohio
Seated inside the historic Kirtland Temple, President Ballard spoke of his rich Latter-day Saint heritage as the great-great-grandson of Hyrum Smith, brother of the Prophet Joseph Smith. Hyrum Smith dug the first footings for the Kirtland Temple, which was built at great sacrifice by the Saints. President Ballard also stood next to the place where Hyrum Smith likely sat during the Kirtland Temple dedication in 1836.
“If we ever lose sight of our forefathers and those who made it possible for us to have what we have, we will have lost something that is irreplaceable,” he said. “What a blessing for us to be sitting in the Kirtland Temple, and knowing what we know about our purpose of life — who we are, why we are here, and where we will ultimately go.”
In addition to missing his wife, President Ballard spoke of losing an infant granddaughter, a grandson who died in an airplane crash and other relatives who have died. He expressed deep gratitude for the blessings of the temple, specifically the sealing power, which binds families together beyond this life.
Standing a short distance from the temple amid the green trees and plants, President Ballard said he was grateful for one more chance to visit Kirtland.
“This is a special, wonderful place for me and my family,” he said. “When I come here, I feel overwhelmed with the strength and the power of my Smith forefathers and hope I can just try to do my part. … I am in the sunset of my life. But to know when that day comes and I leave this world, I will go to family in the next one. It is a very comforting thing for me. We are just separated for a little season.”
Carthage, Illinois
Back in the Carthage Jail, President Ballard spoke of Hyrum Smith’s refusal to leave Joseph’s side, and how he was trying to hold the door closed when he was shot and killed. For President Ballard, one of Hyrum’s most endearing qualities was his loyalty to Joseph.
“That is a wonderful thing to have a companion that supports you and loves you,” he said. “I think it should be touching for anyone who will stop and listen to the story of the Restoration of the fullness of the gospel of Jesus Christ through the Prophet Joseph Smith. His brother stood side by side with Joseph in all things. I like to believe that Joseph was able to be Joseph in some ways because he had Hyrum.”
Thoughts on family history
It is an important and “wonderful” thing to know who you are and where you come from, President Ballard said.
“Family history is just, ‘Who am I?’” he said, encouraging everyone to learn all they can about the branches in their family tree.
“I think it is very important for people to seek out and know what they can about those who laid the groundwork for them to have what they have in their lives. It is a wonderful thing to know about your forefathers, many of which paid a big price for our personal existence in this world,” he said. “I hope when I die, there will be a few over there that will say thank you for maybe the little good I did along the way. That is what I am trying to do — help where I can and [share] what The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is, and what it offers to our Heavenly Father’s children.”
Music video
The video concluded with a special musical performance, “Guide Me to Thee,” with lyrics by Orson Pratt Huish; music by Jonathan Wing; vocals by Ray Unutoa, Yaphet Bustos and Moni Tiatia; with Ashley Bayles Tenney playing the cello and Wing on the piano.
Wing said he wrote a new melody for the song in 2012. He always liked the lyrics of the hymn but never connected with the original melody.
As Wing sat at a keyboard reading the lyrics, inspiration for another melody came to him. He arranged it for three men but didn’t do anything with it.
Fast forward to 2023. RootsTech organizers were contemplating which hymn to include with the Family Discovery Day session, when Wing’s version of “Guide Me to Thee” came to mind.
“It is in a way a funeral song, with the last verse talking about ‘Silent death draw[ing] near’ and having our fears calmed, relying on the mercy and love of our Savior to get back home,” Wing said.
He said the song choice felt like the right piece given President Ballard’s loss of his wife, but it took on added meaning with his death.
“To me, this hymn will always represent my longing to be constantly guided to our Savior, no matter what life throws my way,” Wing said. “It’s such an honor to finally share a piece that has meant so much to me personally over the past decade.”
Correction: An earlier version noted that President Ballard was 95 years old. While he was 95 at the time of his death in November 2023, he was 94 when the video was filmed in June 2023. Also, Ashley Bayles Tenney’s last name was misspelled as Tenny.
