Ruth May Fox
| Ruth May Fox | |
|---|---|
| Photo of Ruth May Fox | |
| 3rd general president of the Young Women | |
| 1929 – 1937 | |
| Called by | Heber J. Grant |
| Predecessor | Martha H. Tingey |
| Successor | Lucy Grant Cannon |
| First Counselor in the general presidency of the Young Women | |
| 1905 – 1929 | |
| Called by | Martha H. Tingey |
| Predecessor | Maria Young Dougall |
| Successor | Lucy Grant Cannon |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Ruth May November 16, 1853 Westbury, England |
| Died | Script error: The function "death_date_and_age" does not exist. Salt Lake City, Utah |
| Resting place | Salt Lake City Cemetery Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found. |
| Spouse(s) | Jesse William Fox |
| Children | 12 |
| Parents | James May Mary A. Harding |
| Website | Ruth May Fox |
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Ruth May Fox (November 16, 1853 – April 12, 1958) was a nineteenth-century English-born women's rights activist in the Territory of Utah. Fox was a poet, hymn writer, and a leader of youth in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church).
Contents
Early life
Ruth May was born in Westbury, Wiltshire, England to James May and Mary Ann Harding.[1] When May was five months old, her parents converted to Mormonism. Her mother died in childbirth when Ruth was 18 months old. May was sent to live with various relatives and Mormon families while her father was a traveling missionary. Lacking parental consistency, Ruth misbehaved often as a child. At one point she set her hair on fire, and another time she stepped in front of an oncoming train.
At age 8, Ruth returned to live with her father in Yorkshire in a boarding house run by Mary Saxton.[2] In 1865, James May emigrated to the United States and shortly thereafter sent for Ruth, Mrs. Saxton, and Clara. On their arrival in Philadelphia, James May married Mrs. Saxton, and he and the two girls found work in a textile mill to save money to go to Utah Territory.[3] In 1867 the family traveled by covered wagon and on foot to Salt Lake City with Leonard Rice's company.[1] After settling in the Ogden area, Ruth attended John Morgan's College in Salt Lake City for four months.[3] When James bought a mill in Salt Lake City, Ruth worked for him operating equipment usually run by men. She felt that she should be paid a man's wages for the job, as her women's wages were lesser.[2]
Family
On May 8, 1873, Ruth married Jesse W. Fox, Jr., a civil engineer[citation needed]. In 1888, Jesse Fox married Rosemary Johnson as a plural wife without Ruth's permission. Jesse lost his business and the family home.[3] As Jesse resided with Rosemary, Ruth was on her own to provide for her own children. In 1900 Ruth managed the Saint Omer Boarding house. In 1914 she worked as a typist for the LDS church's Young Ladies' Mutual Improvement Association (YLMIA).[3] During her time as a typist, her father's health was declining, and Ruth rented a home for her and her father near the YLMIA offices.[4]
Ruth eventually became the mother of twelve children,[3] of whom ten lived to adulthood. At the time of her 100th birthday in 1953, she had 256 living direct descendants.[citation needed]
Women's suffrage movement
Fox was active in promoting the women's suffrage movement in Utah and did so largely through her involvement in the Republican Party. She was president of the Utah Woman's Press Club, chair of the Second Precinct Ladies' Republican Club, treasurer of the Utah Woman Suffrage Association, and was a member of the Reaper's Club, the Salt Lake County Republican Committee, the Deseret Agricultural and Manufacturing Society, and the Traveler's Aid Society.[3][5] In the late 19th century she worked for the inclusion of woman suffrage in the Utah state constitution and helped draft the suffrage memorial presented and accepted by the 1895 Utah constitutional convention. Fox and Emmeline B. Wells met with Susan B. Anthony and Anna Howard Shaw when they visited Salt Lake City on May 12, 1895.[5]
Church leadership
In 1905, Fox was asked to be the first counselor to Martha Horne Tingey in the general presidency of the YLMIA.[3] Fox served in this capacity until 1929, when church president Heber J. Grant asked Fox to become the third general president of the YLMIA.
During her tenure as president, Fox changed the name of the organization to the Young Women's Mutual Improvement Association and replaced the organization's slogans with scriptural themes.[citation needed] In 1930, Fox wrote the hymn "Carry On", a song that is now associated with the Young Women and Young Men Organizations of the LDS Church;[2] in 1995, "Carry On" was adopted by Gordon B. Hinckley as the theme of his tenure as President of the Church.[6]
Fox served until 1937, when she was succeeded by her own first counselor, Lucy Grant Cannon.
Social and civil service
Heber Manning Wells, the first governor of Utah, appointed Fox as a director of the Deseret Agricultural and Manufacturing Society. She served in this capacity for eight years. Fox also was active in serving for the American Red Cross in Utah. She served on the executive board. She was also active in the Woman's Press Club. During the influenza epidemic of 1917 she served as a volunteer nurse to the sick.[7]
Later life and death
Fox's 85th, 90th, 95th, and 100th birthday parties were held in the Beehive House and were attended by members of the First Presidency, the Council of the Twelve Apostles, other Church leaders, and city and state officials. She was 103 when she flew on an airplane to celebrate the golden wedding anniversary of one her sons. Fox died in Salt Lake City at the age of 104.
Notes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 3.6 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Jeffrey R. Holland, “President Gordon B. Hinckley: Stalwart and Brave He Stands,” Ensign, June 1995, pp. 2–3.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
Further Reading
- Thatcher, Linda "'I Care Nothing for Politics': Ruth May Fox, Forgotten Suffragist," Utah Historical Quarterly 49:239–253 (1981)
External links
- Ruth May Fox at the MLCA Database
- Ruth May Fox (1929–1937) : summary of Fox's tenure as president of the Young Women Organization
- My Story by Ruth May Fox : biography written by Fox's son and approved by Fox
- Ruth May Fox Scrapbook, MSS 6148 at L. Tom Perry Special Collections, Brigham Young University
- Ruth May Fox at Find a Grave
| The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints titles | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | General President of the Young Women December 6, 1904 – 1929 |
Succeeded by Lucy Grant Cannon |
| Preceded by | First Counselor in the general presidency of the Young Women 1905 - 1929 |
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- Pages with broken file links
- Latter Day Saint biography Infobox with missing parameters
- Articles with unsourced statements from May 2016
- 1853 births
- 1958 deaths
- American centenarians
- American Latter Day Saint hymnwriters
- American Latter Day Saint writers
- American suffragists
- American women's rights activists
- Burials at Salt Lake City Cemetery
- Counselors in the General Presidency of the Young Women (organization)
- English centenarians
- English emigrants to the United States
- English Latter Day Saint hymnwriters
- English Latter Day Saints
- General Presidents of the Young Women (organization)
- People from Westbury, Wiltshire
- People of Utah Territory
- English leaders of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
- Utah Republicans
- American female songwriters
