Mourners remember Mormon Church president’s wife

Hundreds of mourners gathered in Salt Lake City to remember the quiet, steadfast wife of the Mormon church’s president.

Frances Monson died Friday at the age of 85 while surrounded by family at a Salt Lake City hospital. Her husband, Thomas S. Monson, has led The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints since February 2008.

Church leaders and friends spoke at the public funeral service at the Salt Lake Tabernacle on Thursday afternoon, describing her as a devoted wife who left behind a “legacy of humility, service, faithfulness and love.”

Her daughter, Ann Dibb, described her mother as a woman who was proud of her Swedish heritage, who never sugarcoated the truth and was “loyal, true and absolutely devoted” to her husband.

President Henry B. Eyring and President Dieter F. Uchtdorf, counselors in the church’s First Presidency, also spoke at the funeral.

Eyring said that “while this is a time of sorrow, it is also a time of gladness for Sister Monson, who had a rich and rewarding life.” He added that her “talents were many, her love abundant, her character above reproach and her faith unshakable,” according to a news release from the church.

Uchtdorf described Frances Monson as a “true woman of Zion” with a “depth of spirit and character.” Although she rarely, if ever, spoke at length to members of the Church, Uchtdorf said, her “compassionate, kind and gentle life is full of sermons by which we and the membership of this Church are richly blessed and which will never be forgotten.”

Thomas Monson did not speak at the service.