Phyllis McGinley

A graduate of Ogden High, she was a Pulitzer Prize winning poet. Phyllis McGinley was born March 21, 1905, in Ontario, Oregon, the daughter of Daniel and Julia Kiesel McGinley. Her father was a land speculator and the family moved often, finally settling on farm land that her father could not sell in Cliff, Colorado. When Phyllis was 12 her …

David O. McKay

(1873 – 1970) As president of the LDS church from 1951 to 1970, leading the church’s emergence from parochial obscurity to a worldwide religion, McKay made the Mormon church an active player in civic projects, encouragement of new business ventures and in the promotion of tourism. The encouragement of tolerance in inter-religious relationships was another trademark of his tenure.

Larry H. Miller

Lorille Horne Miller Utah History Encyclopedia, 1994 Lawrence H. Miller was born 26 April 1944 to Mary Lorille Horne and Howard Hanley West. His parents divorced in 1946, and in June 1948 his mother married Frank Soren Miller, who legally adopted Larry in September 1949. Larry attended Salt Lake City public schools, graduating from West High School in 1962. He …

David Smith Monson

Craig Fuller Utah History Encyclopedia, 1994 David Smith Monson was born in Salt Lake City, Utah, 20 June 1945. He attended public schools in Salt Lake City, graduating from Highland High School in 1963. He received a degree in accounting from the University of Utah in 1970 and served in the Utah Air National Guard from 1967 to 1973, reaching …

Frank E. “Ted” Moss

John S. McCormick Utah History Encyclopedia, 1994 A moderate Democrat, though personally more liberal than his constituents, Frank E. “Ted” Moss was a three-term U.S. Senator who served from 1959 to 1977. He was born in Holladay, a suburb of Salt Lake City, on 23 September 1911, the youngest of seven children of James E. Moss, a well-known secondary-school educator, …

Harvey Natchees

A hero of World War II, he believed in education. One of the first Americans to enter Berlin in the final days of World War II was Harvey Natchees, a Ute Indian. Born on May 26, 1920, in Altonah, Duchesne County, to Edward and Vera Loney Natchees, he attended Roosevelt High School and was reportedly its first Indian graduate. On …

Katherine Fenton Nutter

She came west as a telegrapher and became Utah’s cattle queen. When Katherine Fenton Nutter died in Salt Lake City on July 17, 1965, at age 94, the Salt Lake Tribune called her “perhaps the last of the West’s cattle queens.” Whether she was the last of her breed is debatable; that she was indeed queen of a vast cattle …

Helen Papanikolas

(1917 – 2004) Faithful recorder of Utah’s rich ethnic heritage, whose historical works made it impossible to ignore the complexities of Utah’s past and present.

Ivy Baker Priest

She served as Treasurer of the U.S. during Eisenhower’s two terms. Born in Kimberly, Piute County, on September 7, 1905, to Clara Fernley and Orange D. Baker, Ivy grew up in Bingham where her father worked as a miner and her mother ran a boarding house. As a senior at Bingham High School Ivy captained the debate team, worked on …

Ada Williams Quinn

She founded a clothing factory in Ogden and ran for governor in 1940. Born on December 13, 1878, in Peterson, Morgan County, to Joshua and Hannah Martha Green Williams, Ada attended school in Morgan County and then earned a teaching certificate from the University of Utah. She taught school in both Morgan County and Ogden. She married Edward N. Quinn, …