Cane-wavers to usher LDS leader to cemetery

Imagine 10,000 people wielding canes and white handkerchiefs on the sidewalks lining South Temple downtown, raising them in salute at a passing hearse.

That's the vision Kristen Call Smith has of what could happen today if enough Utahns heed her call for a "cane-wave tribute" to President Gordon B. Hinckley. She says it's a simple gesture of love and respect open to anyone who wants to participate.

After receiving word Sunday night of President Hinckley's death, Smith and her friends started texting back and forth about how they wished they could do something to honor him but how it was likely that thousands who wished to attend wouldn't get in to his funeral.

"We decided watching the funeral on TV — that's not really a way to say goodbye. So we started brainstorming" and quickly came up with the idea of a "cane-wave tribute" along the route that President Hinckley's cortege will take to the Salt Lake City Cemetery.

Waving his cane had become the church leader's signature greeting to Latter-day Saints in recent years as he entered different venues around the world to share his faith and love.

"He was such a personable man," Smith said. "If you ran into him on the street, you knew you could say something to him, rather than feeling intimidated and backing away. He's the kind of guy you would want to run up and pinch his cheeks and tell him how cute he is before security got to you."

She said the cane and handkerchief wave is something organizers hope will be personally meaningful to the church leader and his family.

"They (his family) have had to share him for so long with the world," she said. Friends she is working with have learned that the Hinckley family does approve of the tribute. "We've been able to find out that they are pleased we would even think about doing this. It's a way to salute them while being respectful enough to stay away from the funeral party (at the cemetery).

"While this is all being televised to the world, it's also a private matter for family and close friends."

Organizers are asking participants to line up on South Temple east of State Street for several blocks, noting that a strict "no protest zone" has been established around the LDS Church campus downtown in accordance with a recently passed state law.

Any organized demonstration — whether supportive or otherwise — is covered by the ordinance, and Salt Lake police plan to remove anyone in violation, according to church officials who have communicated with Smith and "are pleased" and "have offered thanks" for the effort, she said.