May Anderson

Anderson was born in Liverpool, England, the third of Scott Anderson and Mary Bruce's 12 children. She emigrated to Utah Territory with her family after the family had been baptized by missionaries of the LDS Church. During the journey to Utah, Anderson met Louie B. Felt, who would become a lifelong friend and co-worker in the Primary of the church.

File:May Anderson and Louie Felt.gif

On October 5, 1890, Louie B. Felt, the general president of the Primary Association, asked Anderson to become a member of the general board of the organization. For the next forty-nine years, Anderson would work in some capacity in the Primary organization of the LDS Church. She was the general board's secretary for fifteen years (1890–1905), Felt's first counselor in the general presidency for twenty years (1905–25), and general president of the organization for fourteen years (1925–39). Anderson was also the first editor-in-chief of The Children's Friend, the church's official magazine for children.

During her tenure in the presidency of the Primary, Anderson initiated the Primary Children's Hospital in Salt Lake City, which is today part of Intermountain Healthcare. Anderson also helped establish kindergartens in Utah. Anderson's successor to the Primary general presidency was May Green Hinckley.

Anderson did not marry and died at Salt Lake City of arteriosclerosis.[http://images.archives.utah.gov/data/81448/2260789/2260789_0001118.jpg State of Utah Death Certificate] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110818095948/http://images.archives.utah.gov/data/81448/2260789/2260789_0001118.jpg |date=August 18, 2011 }} She was buried at Salt Lake City.

Anderson had a lifelong friendship with fellow church leader Louie B. Felt. When Felt was suffering an illness in 1889, Felt's husband Joseph requested May to stay there to care for her while he was away on a business trip. During the period that Anderson was the editor-in-chief of The Children's Friend, it published an anonymous account of the friendship that existed between Felt and Anderson; the article referred to the couple as the "David and Jonathan of the Primary" organization."Mary and May", The Children's Friend, vol. 18, Oct. 1919, 420–21. This has led two dissident Mormon historians to theorize that Anderson and Felt had a partially closeted lesbian relationship.Connell Hill O'Donovan (1992) "The Abominable and Detestable Crime Against Nature": A Brief History of Homosexuality and Mormonism, 1830-1980 (Salt Lake City, Utah: Signature Books).D. Michael Quinn, Same-Sex Dynamics Among Nineteenth Century Americans: A Mormon Example (University of Illinois Press: Urbana).

However, other LDS researchers have disagreed with this theory, calling it a distortion of LDS history and a misrepresention of facts.Klaus J. Hansen [http://farms.byu.edu/display.php?table=review&id=279 Quinnspeak] Review of Same-Sex Dynamics among Nineteenth-Century Americans: A Mormon Example by D. Michael Quinn Provo, Utah,Vella Neil Evans, Women's Studies, University of Utah, at the Sunstone Symposium, Salt Lake City, August 16, 1996. Audio Tape No. 238 Two researchers have stated: "No evidence exists to lead us to believe that their relationship was anything but that of true and chaste Christian friendship and sisterly love."George L. Mitton, Rhett S. James [http://farms.byu.edu/display.php?table=review&id=280 A Response to D. Michael Quinn's Homosexual Distortion of Latter-day Saint History] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070808011644/http://farms.byu.edu/display.php?table=review&id=280 |date=August 8, 2007 }} Review of Same-Sex Dynamics among Nineteenth-Century Americans: A Mormon Example by D. Michael Quinn Provo, Utah: Maxwell Institute, 1998. Pp. 141–263.

{{Portal|Children's literature}}

• Sadie Grant Pack
• Isabelle S. Ross

{{reflist}}

• The Children's Friend, vol. 11, June 1912 (special edition dedicated to the life and work of May Anderson).
• Conrad A. Harward, [https://web.archive.org/web/20110611185858/http://contentdm.lib.byu.edu/cdm4/document.php?CISOROOT=%2FMTGM&CISOPTR=13971&REC=1 A History of the Growth and Development of the Primary Association of the LDS Church from 1878 to 1928], Master of Arts Thesis, Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah, 1976.
• Mary R. Jack, "May Anderson: A Friend of the Children", The Children's Friend, vol. 40, Apr. 1941, 148.
• {{cite book | last = Jenson | first = Andrew | authorlink = Andrew Jenson | title = Latter-day Saint biographical encyclopedia: A compilation of biographical sketches of prominent men and women in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints | url = http://contentdm.lib.byu.edu/u?/BYUIBooks,5238 | accessdate = December 20, 2011 | volume = 4 | year = 1936 | publisher = The Andrew Jenson Memorial Association (Printed by The Deseret News Press) | location = Salt Lake City, Utah | isbn = 1-58958-026-5 | pages = [http://contentdm.lib.byu.edu/u?/BYUIBooks,5639 271] and [http://contentdm.lib.byu.edu/u?/BYUIBooks,5896 273]}}

• Sara Jordan, [https://web.archive.org/web/20060822075807/http://www.affirmation.org/memorial/lesbian_mormon_history.shtml Lesbian Mormon History], March 1997.

{{S-start}}

{{s-rel|mo}}

{{s-bef|before= Louie B. Felt }}

{{s-ttl | title = President of the Primary | years = {{start date|1925|10|08}} –1939}}

{{s-aft | after = May Green Hinckley}}

{{s-bef|before= Lillie T. Freeze}}

{{s-ttl | title = First Counselor in the
general presidency of the Primary | years = 1905 – {{end date|1925|10|08}} }}

{{s-aft | after = Sadie Grant Pack}}

{{s-end}}

{{LDSprimary}}

{{authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Anderson, May}}

Category:1864 births

Category:1946 deaths

Category:American Latter Day Saints

Category:British Latter Day Saints

Category:Burials at Salt Lake City Cemetery

Category:Counselors in the General Presidency of the Primary (LDS Church)

Category:Editors of Latter Day Saint publications

Category:English Latter Day Saint writers

Category:English Latter Day Saints

Category:English children's writers

Category:English emigrants to the United States

Category:English leaders of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

Category:General presidents of the Primary (LDS Church)

Category:LGBTQ and Mormonism

Category:People from Liverpool

Category:Deaths from arteriosclerosis