I'm sure some of you in my age range (knocking on 70’s door) are familiar with "Today in Church History". I have it on my feed and some of the pieces are interesting, some less so. Today there’s a blurb about J. Golden Kimball, the “Swearing Apostle.”

When I was a kid, Primary to teen years, my mother loved J. Golden Kimball and the stories about him. I remember her talking about him, and I found some of his life humorous. In seminary, my teacher also loved to tell J. Golden stories, but I don’t remember hearing this information about his death.

Today is the 80th anniversary of J. Goldens death in a car wreck, coming from CA back to Utah. He was asleep in the back seat and the driver lost control of the car. He suffered a fatal skull fracture and was killed "west of Reno". I don’t think I’d ever heard that part of his story, but maybe I did and just ignored it, like I did with much of church related things in those days.

http://www.ldsliving.com/4-Things-You-May-Not-Know-about-J-Golden-Kimball/s/85516

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J._Golden_Kimball

J Golden was a cowboy. He had a colorful vocabulary. You needed one around mules and certain farm criters.

He was not an apostle. He was a member of the presiding presidency of the 70.

In those days the 7 presidents of the 70 were the only 70s considered general authorities. Their quorum was equal in authority but subservient to the 12 apostles.

J Golden was the son of Heber C Kimball. Golden once said there were 2 ways to be someone in the church. Revelation and relation snd if he wasn't Heber's son he'd be a nobody.

Golden enjoyed coffee and there are many stories about him and coffee.

1. A woman saw him drinking coffee and said she'd rather commit adultry than drink coffee. Golden replied "who wouldn't?"

2. Golden was having lunch in the Tiffany room at ZCMI and when the waitress asked what he wanted to drink he said "water". His friend stopped the waitress and said. "He likes coffee, bring him coffee". When the waitress set a cup of coffee in front of him Golden said "the Lord heard me say water."

3. Golden used to meet my grandfather and they'd go up Farmington canyon and put a pot of coffee on the fire. Grandma confronted Golden one day about in front of my father. Said he was setting a bad example for her son. Golden looked at my father (who was then near 8 years of age) called him by name and said. "The word of wisdom does not apply if you're above an elevation of 5000 feet."

Golden's language would be mild by todays standards. However one problem was his spontaneity during radio broadcast meetings with the strong censorship of the times.

1. Golden once opened a talk with this. "The prophet gets up and says he does not have a prepared speech but hopes the lord will direct his words. Then he gives a nice sermon. I say the same thing. God only knows what I'm going to say. The you all laugh."

2. One conference president Grant handed Golden a sermon to read. He read a few lines on national radio. The turned around and said. "Hell Heber I can't read this damn thing."

When asked why he was never punished for his behavior he replied "They can't do anything to me. I repent too damn fast!"

Those all sound like some of the things I heard about him. Can you imagine the same behavior from Dallin Oaks or David Bednar?

"I love all of the brethren but I love some of them a helluva lot more than others."

Haight was sort of like him in a way, I heard him swear at the pulpit once "why wont this d@mn thing work!"

He use to get up in GC and go off for 30 minutes on an unprepared speech, and give it really slow. It drove the rest of them crazy, everything is suppose to be so choreographed and timed to the second.

There is a mormon Heber C. Kimball living in a town in which I once resided.

In 2011 I was visited by the ward clerk and during the course of our conversation, he mentioned the above fact, adding the tidbit that this local Heber C. Kimball was a member but was really, really inactive and that when he, the ward clerk, had visited the home, he could feel the evil coming from within.

Then he asked me if I wanted to sign a resignation letter, cuz the bishop was trying to get his activity rate up and pruning the deadwood would really, really help.

I declined, telling him that I didn't want to be dead-dunked a year after my death.

If I had the chance to meet that Heber C. Kimball, I'd jump at it....

Thomas Cheney, an English professor at BYU, published a collection of Kimball stories. The Brethren didn't like it, and required Cheney to destroy all copies. Cheney was allowed to keep a few, but he had to tear off the title page and scrape the publisher's name off the spine.

The Cheneys had been very close friends of my parents when Cheney had been the seminary teacher in my home town, and he gave one of the mutilated copies to my parents, which I now own. That edition now brings a thousand dollars.

A reprint is available used for ten dollars or under.

Now days the St.George area of southwest Utah is one of the fastest-growing areas of the US. It's fun to remember what J. Golden said about the area before air conditioning and other modern conveniences:

"If I owned a lot in St. George and one in Hell, I would sell the lot in St. George and move to Hell."