Ezra Taft Benson

Ezra Taft Benson is the 13th President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.

August 4, 1899, President Ezra Taft Benson was born in Whitney Idaho to George T. and Sarah Dunkley Benson. He was the oldest of eleven children.

When Ezra was only twelve years old his father left on a mission.

In 1921-1923 President Benson served a mission in Great Britain.

When Ezra returned from his mission he proposed to Flora Amussen, she did not accept right away but insisted on serving a mission herself. She served in the Hawaii islands for twenty months and for eight of those months she had her mother as her companion!

Ezra and Flora married in the Salt Lake Temple on September 10, 1926. This was the same year President Benson graduated from BYU. He later when on to get his masters degree from Iowa State University.

The Bensons had six children.

President Benson ran a farm in Whitney Idaho and became very influential in the farming community. He ended up working on a National Council of Farming Cooperatives.

Ezra Taft Benson was ordained an apostle of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints at the age of 44, the same day as Spencer W. Kimball.

While serving in the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, Ezra Taft Benson served in the cabinet of Dwight D. Eisenhower as the secretary of Agriculture, on January 20, 1953.

Ezra Taft Benson became Prophet of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints when he was 86, form the year 1985-1994. Gordon B. Hinckley and Thomas S. Monson were called to be his couselors.

Nine temples were dedicated while President Benson was prophet.

President Benson had a strong emphasis on the Book of Mormon during his time as president.

1995, President Benson died at his home in Salt Lake City, Utah, about two months before his 95th birthday.