Primary leader dies
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Naomi Maxfield Shumway, 81, who served as the Primary general president from 1974 to 1980, died May 22, 2004, in Bountiful, Utah.
Sister Shumway served 30 years in the Primary organization as a teacher, ward and stake president, member of the Primary general board and finally as general president. At the time of her call to the general board, she was serving as president of the Salt Lake Hillside Stake Primary.
"It is our hope that we can strengthen the children throughout the world," Sister Shumway said soon after her call as Primary general president. "Primary can be a meaningful thing in the lives of children. Children need to know they are loved and needed. They need to know that they have a Heavenly Father and that He loves them. That is what Primary is about." (See Oct. 5, 1974, Church News.)
Sister Shumway was born Oct. 3, 1922, in Provo, Utah, to Albert E. and Orilla Brown Maxfield. She married Roden Grant Shumway in the Salt Lake Temple on March 8, 1945. He died March 12, 1998. They were parents of three children.
After her release as Primary general president, Sister Shumway ran for and won a seat in the Utah House of Representatives in 1982.
Throughout her years with the Primary, she was active in Scouting. In 1978, she was named to the long-range planning committee for the national Cub Scout program. In 1980, she was presented the regional Silver Antelope Award at the National Court of Honor by the Boy Scouts of America in New Orleans. She also received the Silver Fawn Award.
Sister Shumway was also a former Junior Sunday School coordinator, a counselor in ward Young Women presidency, and a den mother in the Cub Scout program.
"I remember Primary as a special time in my life. I know the influence of a good teacher," Sister Shumway said in the 1974 Church News article.
