IOWA CITY, Iowa — When LDS Church President Gordon B. Hinckley takes the podium at the University of Iowa's Hancher Auditorium tonight to honor Latter-day Saint handcart pioneers, his interest will be personal.

President Hinckley's late wife, Marjorie Pay Hinckley, was the granddaughter of Mary Goble Pay, who at age 11 made her way across the Great Plains in 1856 with the Hunt Wagon Company. That group left Iowa City in close proximity to the ill-fated Willie and Martin handcart companies and was caught in the same sub-zero snow and wind that killed about 200 of their number in Wyoming before they reached the Salt Lake Valley.

And President Hinckley's father, Bryant S. Hinckley, was here in December 1936 while serving as president of the Northern States Mission, and attended the dedication of a marker to the handcart pioneers. A news account of the time says "he was delighted at the impressiveness and dignity of this ceremony," spearheaded by the Daughters of the American Revolution and held in the senate chamber of the old Iowa State House.

The bronze plaque now resides in Morrison Park.

Tonight's fireside will cap a three-day sesquicentennial handcart commemoration here, co-sponsored by the LDS Church, local historical societies and the Iowa Mormon Trails Association. The service is scheduled to be broadcast via the LDS Church satellite system, on BYU Television and KBYU-TV Channel 11, and begins at 6 p.m. Mountain Time.

Journal excerpts written by Mary Goble Pay were among those available for reading here Saturday during a family-themed handcart pioneer festival. Held near the site where early Latter-day Saints camped before pulling their handcarts West, up to 1,500 people braved chilly temperatures and threatening skies to enjoy pioneer crafts and games, entertainment, square dancing and a short handcart pull, paying homage to people whose legacy has become legendary here.

Today, a nature preserve and trail known as Mormon Handcart Park is a cooperative effort between the university and the LDS Church. Trail markers note that several pioneers died and were buried here before the handcart journey began.

In her recollection of events along the Mormon Trail, Pay writes of bitter cold after crossing the North Platte River, where her wagon company caught up with the Martin company. "We watched them cross the river. There were great lumps of ice floating down the river. It was bitter cold. The next morning, there were fourteen dead in camp through the cold."

That night, her mother gave birth to a baby that was named Edith. "She lived six weeks and died for the want of nourishment," she recorded.

Paul Willie, a descendant of Willie company captain James G. Willie, reminded hundreds of Latter-day Saints on Saturday night that while public attention is rightly focused on the courage and suffering of the two handcart companies, it was near the end of their journey.