Richard R. Lyman
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Richard Roswell Lyman (November 23, 1870-December 31, 1963) was an apostle in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from 1918 to 1943. He was excommunicated in 1943 for cohabitation and rebaptized in 1954.
Richard R. Lyman was born 1870 in Fillmore, Utah. His father was Francis M. Lyman, who was the son of Amasa M. Lyman, both of whom served as apostles in the church. His mother was Clara Caroline Callister, whose grandfather was John Smith, Joseph Smith's uncle, and a presiding Patriarch in the church. Clara Caroline Callister's mother was Caroline Smith Callister, the only sister of the apostle George A. Smith (George served with Brigham Young as a counselor in the presidency of the church).
Richard R. Lyman was ordained an Elder August 29, 1891 by Joseph F. Smith.
He graduated from Brigham Young College in Logan, Utah. He studied at the University of Michigan.
He was known for his civil engineering and work on the Utah State Road Commission.
Richard R. Lyman married Amy Brown on September 9, 1896 by Joseph F. Smith.
He was ordained an apostle April 7, 1918.
In 1943, the First Presidency discovered that Lyman was cohabitating with a woman other than his legal wife. As it turned out, in 1925 Lyman had begun a relationship which he defined as a polygamous marriage. Unable to trust anyone else to officiate, Elder Lyman and the woman exchanged vows secretly. By 1943, both were in their seventies. Lyman was excommunicated on November 12, 1943 at age 73. The Quorum of the Twelve provided the newspapers with a one-sentence announcement, stating that the ground for excommunication was violation of the Law of Chastity, which any practice of post-Manifesto polygamy constituted. For years after his excommunication, some apostles worried that Elder Lyman might join the Mormon fundamentalist movement.
Later, he returned to the church through rebaptism on October 27, 1954.
He died 1963 at Salt Lake City, Utah.
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
[edit] Bibliography
2005 Church Almanac (Salt Lake City, Utah: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 2005): 65.
D. Michael Quinn, The Mormon Hierarchy: Extensions of Power (Salt Lake City, Utah: Signature Books, 1997): 183.
D. Michael Quinn, Same-Sex Dynamics Among Nineteenth Century Americas: The Mormon Example (Urbana & Chicago: Illinois University Press, 1996): 371-372.
D. Michael Quinn, Elder Statesman: A Biography of J. Reuben Clark (Salt Lake City, Utah: Signature Books, 2002): 252-253.
Edward L. Kimball & Andrew E. Kimball Jr., Spencer W. Kimball: Twelfth President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Salt Lake City, Utah: Bookcraft, 1977) p. 208-210.
John R. Sillitoe, "Enigmatic Apostle: The Excommunication of Richard L. Lyman." Paper presented at Sunstone Symposium, Salt Lake City, Utah, 1991.
| Preceded by: Stephen L. Richards |
Quorum of the Twelve Apostles April 7, 1918–November 12, 1943 |
Succeeded by: Melvin J. Ballard |
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