Relief Society General President Camille N. Johnson has been named grand marshal of the 2026 Days of ’47 Parade in Salt Lake City on Friday, July 24.
She joins the ranks of Apostles and members of the First Presidency who have had that role and is the second woman to be grand marshal. In 2022, Sister Jean B. Bingham, who was then serving as Relief Society general president, became the first woman to have the honor of grand marshal since the parade began in 1849.
President Johnson said she is thrilled for the opportunity to honor her own pioneer ancestors and also celebrate all who are pioneers in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints around the world.
“A parade is an opportunity to celebrate what we have in common, to unify, and then reflect upon the characteristics of those pioneer settlers and seek to emulate their characteristics,” President Johnson told the Church News.
This year’s theme of the Days of ’47 festivities is “Like, Learn, Love Pioneers.” The Days of ’47 Parade is scheduled to take place in downtown Salt Lake City on Friday, July 24, at 9 a.m. July 24 is a state holiday in Utah and known as Pioneer Day.
The pioneers — walking, riding in covered wagons or pushing and pulling handcarts — first arrived in the Salt Lake Valley on July 24, 1847. Two years later, they began celebrating with an annual parade.
Born in Idaho and raised in Idaho, Germany, Texas and Utah, President Johnson has ancestors on both sides who crossed the Plains to the Western United States.
Some of her ancestors lived in Nauvoo, Illinois, building homes and businesses and helping build the temple. They were endowed in the house of the Lord in Nauvoo, and then walked across the Plains.
They had optimism even in the midst of their circumstances and challenges, President Johnson said. “They were tenacious. They were faithful. It was clearly their faith in the restored gospel of Jesus Christ that drove them to follow the Saints and answer the Prophet’s call together to Zion. And when they got here, their first priority was to build the temple.”
President Johnson grew up hearing stories about her faithful progenitors. She said she always knew that through her own faith and faithfulness she had access to the same promised blessings that propelled her ancestors westward.
President Johnson will be joined by her husband, Brother Doug Johnson, in the parade. When she and Brother Johnson were serving as mission leaders in the Peru Arequipa Mission, they worked with “modern-day pioneers” as many of the missionaries were the first and only members in their families or the first to serve full-time missions.
“My pioneer ancestors and these marvelous missionaries share a faithful determination and love for the Savior Jesus Christ, which I find inspiring,” she wrote in a social media post July 23, 2021.
On Tuesday, July 21, she told the Church News of meeting people all around the world who have been converted to the restored gospel of Jesus Christ and been baptized “and they’re pioneering in their homes and in their own communities as they seek to build Zion.”
The upcoming Salt Lake Temple Celebration is another opportunity to reflect on the pioneers who entered the Salt Lake Valley and got to work on building a house of the Lord. The six-month celebration and open house begins in April 2027.
“I’m really thrilled that the world is going to have the opportunity to come inside and have a deeper understanding of why it was a priority to those early pioneers,” President Johnson said. “We honor them. And I think that people that will come through will feel the Spirit. And I think they’ll feel a connection to these people who built an edifice out of granite worthy to call a house of the Lord.”
Recent Days of ’47 Parade grand marshals
- The late President Jeffrey R. Holland, then acting president of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, in 2025.
- Elder David A. Bednar of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles in 2024.
- Then-Elder D. Todd Christofferson of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, now second counselor in the First Presidency, in 2023.
- Sister Jean B. Bingham, then Relief Society general president, in 2022,
- Elder Ronald A. Rasband of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles in 2021.
- The late President M. Russell Ballard, then Elder Ballard, of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles in 2018 and in 2016.
- President Dieter F. Uchtdorf, then second counselor in the First Presidency, now acting president of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles in 2017 and in 2013.
- President Henry B. Eyring, first counselor in the First Presidency, in 2015 and in 2012.
- The late President Thomas S. Monson, then Church President, in 2014.
