45 years ago today - Sep 27, 1973-Thursday

[Leonard Arrington]
... Edith [Smith] Patrick said yesterday that Joseph F. Smith's first wife, Levira, could not have any children. She said that after Joseph F. married Julina, Levira's mother kept telling her, "Joseph F. doesn't care about you anymore, because you can't have any children so you are going to be essentially a discard." Her mother encouraged her to leave Joseph F. and this is presumably one of the factors which led to her leaving the apostle.

Sister Patrick says that Levira left at a time when Joseph F. was out of town and left without any advance notice to him. He was shocked and saddened when he got the word from Brigham Young.

[Confessions of a Mormon historian : the diaries of Leonard J. Arrington, 1971-1997, Gary James Bergera, editor, Signature Books, 2018]

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