Emma Lou Thayne, a giant in Mormon literature, passed away on December 6, 2014, at the age of 90. She was a noted author of poetry, fiction, essays, hymns, and travel stories, as well as her work as an educator, coach, LDS Young Women’s board member, and Deseret News board member.
Thayne was born Emma Lou Warner on October 22, 1924, in Salt Lake City. She received a B.A. in English at the University of Utah in 1945, and taught as an instructor at the University of Utah Department of English and Division of Continuing Education, from 1946 to 1976. She continued to teach a writing class at the University of Utah up through 2013. She also taught in the University of Utah LDS Institute of Religion, and was Head Coach for the University of Utah Women’s Intercollegiate Tennis Team (1966-71). She received a M. A. in Creative Writing from the University of Utah in 1970. She was chosen by Thomas S. Monson to be the first woman to ever serve on the Board of Directors at the Deseret News, where she served from 1977 to 1984. She also served on the Board of Directors of the Utah Arts Council, the Utah Endowment for the Humanities, the LDS Young Women’s Mutual Improvement Association, and the Salt Lake City Citizen’s Council. The Salt Lake Community College’s service learning center is named after Thayne.
Emma Lou married Melvin E. Thayne on December 27, 1949. She is survived by Melvin, her five daughters (Becky Markosian, Rinda Hayes, Shelley Rich, Dinny Trabert, and Megan Heath), nineteen grandchildren, and eighteen great-grandchildren.
Thayne has been honored five times with awards from the Association for Mormon Letters, twice for poetry (1980 and 1985), once each for Personal Essay (1989) and Autobiography (2011), and an Honorary Lifetime Membership in 1988. She has received BYU’s David O. McKay Humanities Award, and Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degrees from both the University of Utah and Salt Lake Community College. Her portrait hangs in Abravanel Hall, the result of receiving a Chamber of Commerce Honors in the Arts Award. She received the Gandhi Peace Award in 2013, awarded by a Salt Lake City peace group.
In the 1980s she became actively involved in peace organizations such as Women Concerned About Nuclear War and Utahns United Against the Nuclear Arms Race. In 1990, she was the only woman to speak at the Test Ban Treaty Congress in Alma-Ata, Kazakhstan, sponsored by the Nobel Prize-winning Physicians for Social Responsibility. She was an outspoken opponent of American involvement in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, always taking a peaceful and ecumenical approach. She was also an activist in support of those suffering from AIDS. On her positions on peace, see her essay “Where Can I Turn For Peace” in Dialogue Fall 2006, and on AIDS, see “The Paintings, The Painter, and the Poet”, in Sunstone, December 1995).
President Monson expressed his condolences of Thayne’s passing Saturday. “I am saddened at the passing of my friend, Emma Lou Warner Thayne, a multi-talented and caring individual whose outstanding contributions in literature, in education and in other endeavors have done much to enlighten and to inspire. She will be greatly missed. I join with countless others in extending my deepest condolences to her dear husband Mel and to her entire family.”
William B. Smart, former editor of the Deseret News, recalled Thayne’s dedication to honesty and accuracy in journalism. “She was a very strong advocate of openness and freedom of the press, and of transparency,” Smart said. “She always insisted that we tell the whole story, and she was a very strong voice in supporting me in my efforts to create a truly frank and honest and open newspaper.” (from the Deseret News obituary).
A viewing will be held at the Foothill LDS Stake Center, 1933 S. 2100 East, from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. on Thursday. Another viewing will take place Friday from 10 a.m. to 11:30 am., followed by funeral services at noon.
Thayne’s literary work
Thayne had many poems and essays published in The Ensign, Exponent II, Dialogue, Sunstone, and The Association for Mormon Letters Annual. A detailed but incomplete list can be found at the Mormon Literature & Creative Arts Database.
Some notable works were:
Spaces in the Sage. Parliament, 1971. Poetry collection. (Elouise Bell review in BYU Studies)
Until Another Day for Butterflies. Parliament, 1973. Poetry collection.
On Slim Unaccountable Bones: Poems. Parliament, 1974. Poetry collection
With Love, Mother. Deseret Book, 1975. Poetry collection. “Offers a tender insight into the death of the author’s mother, and a unique sharing of the joys and challenges of the growing up of five children from newborn to having children of their own.”
“Mother Killed the Rattlesnakes” The Ensign, April 1975. Personal essay, with an illustration by James Christensen.
Never Past the Gate. Peregrine Smith, 1975. Novel. Based on her experiences as a child in the 1930s.
A Woman’s Place. Nishan Grey, 1977. Novel. “Written for married or single women and explores new ways to honor womanhood with meaning and humor, as well as appreciation.”
The Family Bond. Nissan Grey, 1977. Essays. “A personal look at what a family can mean and be through the eyes of all its members and an honest, tender and articulate mother.”
The Guilty. 1978. A screenplay for a BYU Motion Picture Studio-produced, 21 minute film, directed by William N. Burch. About an unwed expectant mother returning to her hometown, based on a story by Elder Marion D. Hanks that teaches love and concern for others. Starring Gordon Jump.
Once In Israel. BYU Press, 1980. Narrative prose and lyric poetry about her travels in the Holy Land. Won the 1980 AML Award for Poetry
How Much for the Earth? A Suite of Poems: About Time for Considering. Signature Books, 1983. Poetry collection. Based on a project with the cellist David Freed, combing poems with music, on themes about the dangers of nuclear weapons, and in support of a Nuclear Test Ban Treaty. Translations were published in Russian and German, and she toured the Soviet Union in 1984 as part of an educational exchange. Several of the poems appeared in Dialogue.
“Where Can I Turn For Peace?” (1985) hymn. Thayne wrote the hymn with the musician Joleen Meredith while both were serving on the YWMIA board. Thayne wrote in reaction to her daughter’s struggles with bipolar and eating disorder issues.
As For Me and My House: Meditations on Living and Loving. Bookcraft, 1989. 16 short essays about living, especially as a wife and mother, based on her own experiences. (Review by Lowell Bennion in BYU Studies). It was awarded the 1989 AML Award for Personal Essay.
Things Happen: Poems of Survival. Signature Books, 1991. Poetry collection
Hope and Recovery: A Mother-Daughter Story about Anorexia Nervosa, Bulimia, and Manic Depression (Co-authored with her daughter Becky Thayne Markosian). Franklin Watts, 1992. (Kirkus review of the book).
All God’s Critters Got A Place in the Choir. Aspen Books, 1995. Personal essay (and poetry) collection co-written with Pulitzer-prize winning historian Laurel Thatcher Ulrich, including discussions of issues facing women in the Church.
The Place of Knowing: A Spiritual Autobiography. iUniverse, 2011. Thayne’s final book, an autobiography centering on a 1986 car accident that nearly killed her, and resulted in several surgeries. She discusses her experience in this 2011 Deseret News article and this 2011 Salt Lake Tribune article. The book was awarded the 2011 AML Award for Autobiography. Shelah Miner and fMhLisa’s reviews.
Emma Lou was one of the founding members of the Association for Mormon Letters, and frequently did poetry readings at its conferences.
More reading on Emma Lou:
Obituary by Peggy Fletcher Stack, The Salt Lake Tribune
Obituary by Morgan Jacobsen, Deseret News
Casualene Meyer. “Emma Lou Thayne and the Art of Peace”. BYU Studies, 53:3, 2013. An interview.
Tyler Chadwick. Beyond Prescription: Liberating Paradox(i)es: Tensions, Texts of Comparison, Twitter, and Emma Lou Thayne (A Motley Vision).
Tyler Chadwick on “Where Can I Turn For Peace”
Libby at Exponent II, “Goodbye, Emma Lou”
A Thoughtful Faith Podcast: A Conversation with Emma Lou Thayne (2013)
Interviewed on the Feminist Mormon Housewives podcast, May 2013.
The history of her peace activism was discussed by the Gandhi Alliance for Peace.
Mary Lythgoe Bradford’s tribute at Dialogue , “Follow the Light, Lulie“
It seems redundant to wish that Sister Thayne rest in peace because that’s the way she lived.
Seeing Emma Lou Thayne’s “Why We Stay” talk at the Sunstone symposium in 2009 was the highlight of the event for me. I particularly remember her ringing, “Why do I stay? Why would I leave?” I’m glad I had the chance to hear her in person.
I loved her openness about her struggles as a mother and her frankness about the joy that being a homemaker brought her. A great example of a woman who seemed to balance church and home service with community service and intellectual striving. She had amazing energy and accomplished much.
I was introduced to the magical poetry and prose of Emma Lou Thayne in my youth by my mother, Geraldine Rasmussen Hurst, who knew Sister Thayne at college. Her writing has enriched me ever since, and she spoke to my Mormon soul in ways few others have. The world is a poorer place now that she has departed.
Emma Lou has been my friend, confidante, mentor for so long I can’t recall our first meeting. She has advised me and edited my writings and given me her loving support for many years. Her faithful Mel was my family’ s Real Estate agent, her daughter Meg lived with me for a time–Oh, there is too much to tell!! I talked with her two weeks ago when she asked me to visit. Her birthday was near mine, so we often celebrated together.
What an inspiration she has been! My husband Bill Brown knew Mel in the real estate business, but I have had the privilege of looking up to her as an accomplished poet, writer, and mother. Her work will live on forever! Thank you, Emma Lou for your courage and loyalty to great causes!