LDS people's stories and voices

During the past month, the media has featured and provided

voice to a diverse group of Latter-day Saints. The Mormon Media Observer takes a

look at the news coverage and opinions. 

Centenarian takes plunge

The (Little Rock) Arkansas Democrat-Gazette tells the story of

Dorothy Wagner, 103, who joined the church and spoke at a recent Relief Society

meeting.

"Dorothy Wagner has been baptized twice in her life: The first time by

sprinkling in a Presbyterian Church, the second time by immersion in the Church

of Jesus Christ of Latterday Saints.  The first ritual took place

before women's suffrage. The second — more than a century later — occurred in

the Internet age.  Of the 279, 218 Mormon converts in 2007, Wagner

was the oldest in Arkansas — perhaps the oldest anywhere, church officials

say."

Someone asked Wagner what she'd want to tell the world about the Church of

Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. "I'd say ' Join it. Join me, '" Wagner said.

"All these lovely people: I can't praise them enough."

Teacher leaves behind legacy

The San Antonio Express-News

featured the valiant fight of LDS member Vicki Briggs with cancer.

"She was a teacher's teacher," said her husband, retired Army

Col. Lee W. Briggs. "A teacher at heart.

"A teacher who taught in Hawaii as well as Iowa, Texas and Utah.

A teacher who, in the final days of her fight with metastatic melanoma,

brightened when the mother of one of her elementary students brought her a card

the young boy made for her. A teacher who passed away the very day another of