75 years ago today - Sep 17, 1942

Heber J. Grant had called Joseph Fielding Smith on the phone, the Apostle on the phone, and told him that all of the other Apostles were in agreement to calling Joseph Fielding rather than Eldred [G. Smith] to the office and would he go along. Joseph Fielding replied, what about [George Albert] Smith, is he going along with this? Heber J. Grant said yes and that Joseph Fielding Smith was the only one yet that was not going along with it and he said well, he wasn't going to be'he wasn't going to hold it up if he was the only one that was objecting and to go ahead with it. He then'Joseph Fielding Smith, as he hung up the telephone, thought it rather strange that George Albert Smith would have agreed to this since he had been so much against it in the past and so he decided to call and ask him why he decided to change his mind, and so he picked up the telephone and called him and the line was busy, and he called several times and the line was busy. Then finally, he got through to him and he asked him the question and George Albert Smith said that he had just got off the phone with Heber J. Grant and that Heber J. Grant called and told him that George Albert Smith was the only one that had not yet agreed to having Joseph Fielding Smith put in as the next Patriarch, and he had asked whether Joseph Fielding the Apostle had gone along with this, and he said yes, that George Albert was the only one that was holding up. George Albert indicated that if he were the only one and if Joseph Fielding was going along with it, then he would'indicating that Heber J. Grant had'that each of them thought the other one was giving in and it was on that basis that they had agreed to the compromise choice of Joseph Fielding as Patriarch, when in fact, neither was the case until after the fact.

[Source: 'Conversation between E. Gary Smith and Eldred Smith on April 11, 1983,' April 12, 1983, as quoted in Minutes of the Apostles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1835-1951, Electronic Edition, 2015]

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