Marjorie Hinckley dies at home Tuesday afternoon

She is viewed as an 'outstanding mother, teacher'

Marjorie Pay Hinckley, wife of LDS Church President Gordon B. Hinckley, died at 5:05 p.m. Tuesday at her home, surrounded by family members, of causes incident to age. She was 92.

At press time, funeral services were pending.

Members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints worldwide learned of her failing health on Sunday, during the final session of the church's 174th Annual General Conference. During closing remarks, President Hinckley said his wife had collapsed "with weariness" on the way home from a trip she had joined him on to Ghana in January.

President Hinckley dedicated the church's most recently completed temple there and said his wife accompanied him on to the island of Sal, then on to St. Thomas in the Caribbean before she became ill.

"She's had a difficult time ever since. She is now 92 years old, a little younger than I am," he said. "I guess the clock is winding down, and we do not know how to rewind it. It is a somber time for me."

The weekend conference was the first time in President Hinckley's 46 years as a general authority of the church that she had not accompanied him to the meetings, he said.

Known to Latter-day Saints worldwide as a small woman with a big heart and a warm sense of humor, she often accompanied her husband on church business and had traveled with him to many parts of the globe, conversing comfortably with both dignitaries and ordinary people. During meetings he conducted, he often called her to the podium to speak. Their easy banter put audiences at ease and endeared her to many.

In a press release from the Office of the First Presidency, President Hinckley identified his wife as "the lodestar of their family (who) gently guided her children with faith, intelligence and humor. Her happiest role was that of a supportive wife and mother (who) made good use of humor to settle many of life's difficulties. She was often heard to say, 'The only way to get through life is to laugh your way through it.' "

An avid reader and family history enthusiast, she encouraged her children and grandchildren to pursue higher education and "delighted in the opportunity to share stories of their (her ancestors') faith from her research."

She is survived by her husband, five children, 25 grandchildren and 40 great-grandchildren.

Sister Hinckley was born Nov. 23, 1911, in Nephi, the first child of Phillip LeRoy and Georgetta Paxman Pay. She had four sisters and two brothers, but one brother died in infancy. The family moved to Salt Lake City in 1914, and she attended East High School, graduating in 1929. She then went to work at the Owens Illinois Glass Co. performing secretarial duties.

Sister Hinckley came from a strong LDS ancestral background that formed her own deep faith. Her maternal grandfather, George Paxman, died at age 24 of injuries sustained while working on the Manti Temple. Her paternal grandmother, Mary Goble Pay, walked, as an 11-year-old girl, across the Great Plains with a handcart company during the Latter-day Saint migration to the West.

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