Jane H. Dudley tells of an incident that drove home the fact that her father, President Gordon B. Hinckley, is more than just a parent.

Photo by David MW Pickup

In May 2004, President Hinckley carries on a family tradition by pausing to read aloud a historical marker to one of his grandsons, Spencer Hinckley.

President Hinckley had addressed a meeting of Church members in South America where a local stake president, who had just heard him speak, could not stop weeping. He cried for more than an hour, when another man explained the situation.

This stake president had been pleading with the Lord for many weeks. He knew his people needed to receive counsel from the prophet on three gospel principles, but had been told by priesthood leaders he could not request that the Church president offer a specific address.

Still, when President Hinckley had stood that night before the large Latin American congregation, he said, "Tonight I have come to speak to you about three things." He then detailed the three specific topics for which the stake president had prayed.

Hearing the story made Sister Dudley emotional as well. She knew then — as she had countless times before — that "we are led and guided and directed today by a prophet of God and that the Lord speaks to him."

This week, as President Hinckley celebrated his 95th birthday, some of his children and his sister shared memories of their father and brother with the Church News. In the time since March 1995 when President Hinckley was sustained as President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, they have watched him greet Latter-day Saints in congregations large and small throughout the world. They have seen him face the media, address world leaders and dedicate temples. They have witnessed his incalculable energy and devotion to both family and the Church. Sister Dudley recalled that President Hinckley once returned from a three-week international trip during which he addressed hundreds of thousands of members in numerous countries. A few hours after he returned to Salt Lake City, Sister Dudley found him raking leaves in her yard.

And they know, without a doubt, that President Hinckley is a true and living prophet.

Still — as some of the people who know President Hinckley best — they add a small disclaimer: If you'd asked them decades ago they would never have imagined that their brother and father would someday lead a 12-million member Church. If they had, they say, they would have taken notes, recording detailed and specific accounts. Certainly, they would have taken more family photographs.

Instead, however, they have simple, general memories — snapshots in time — of the man they now share with Church members worldwide.

Ramona Sullivan, President Hinckley's only living sibling, remembers her brother as being "all boy, all man."

"He wasn't all namby-pamby," she recalled, yet he was sensitive enough to notice simple needs. Six years her senior, he gave her money on one occasion to buy a new party dress.

President Hinckley's children recall their father frequently remodeling and landscaping their home and reading everything from the Deseret News to the Wall Street Journal. They remember receiving grammar lessons around the dinner table and the sweet way he treated their mother. And they can't forget working with their father in the yard or around the house and carefully planning summer vacations.

"We played together, learning from our experiences," said daughter Kathleen H. Barnes Walker. "Our family vacations were interspersed with stops at the historic markers along the roadside and much to our amazement Dad would recount the events memorialized by the marker. . . .

"Every experience was a learning experience, and time and distance have increased our appreciation for this exposure."

Elder Richard G. Hinckley of the Seventy and President Hinckley's oldest son, said the family typically vacationed in places like Yellowstone Park, southern Utah or California. "Of course, we always traveled by car, and in those days, without air conditioning."

While he remembers the fascination he had with geysers and springs, he said "most of all, it was just fun to be together in a relaxed way where no one had on a suit, white shirt or tie."

"We would wake up in the morning, fix breakfast, then spend the day together — either driving through the park or fishing or just laughing and playing together."

Like his sister, Elder Hinckley remembers his father stopping at highway historical markers and explaining the significance of them, "which generally went right over our young heads." However, he added, "it did instill in each one of us an appreciation for the history of this Church and the great sacrifices that so many made."

Sister Walker said her father's education in English, Greek and Latin developed in him a love of words. "It was around our childhood dinner table that we received our first grammar lessons. We were sometimes ahead of our teachers when it came to knowing the parts of speech and the Latin derivatives of many words."

She recalls, as a seventh-grade student, writing her first research paper. "I diligently followed the course of instruction, but was absent the day we were taught footnotes. Not to worry, I thought, and turned to my father to help. He quickly showed me how to number and place footnotes at the bottom of each page and then showed me the correct use of Ibid. when repeating a footnote.

"I turned in my paper, feeling competent about my completed work. A few days later the teacher returned the paper with Ibid. circled in red and a note saying, 'You have not yet learned this!'

"Such was the case on many occasions as he took opportunity to teach us."

Sister Sullivan said she also recalls simple moments during their youth in which her brother took opportunities to teach her.

Her family spent summers in east Millcreek, where Bryant and Ada Hinckley hoped to keep their five children "out of mischief." One day Ramona saw her brother "riding this great big horse, having a marvelous time." When she asked if she could ride, her brother told her she would first have to learn. He brought the horse to a high wall and helped his little sister on.

"That was a huge horse," she recalled. "That horse had such great big eyes."

Sister Sullivan said her brother then took the horse by the bridle — it didn't have a saddle as she was riding bareback — and walked it the equivalent of two city blocks. "He did that another time and another time. Eventually I learned to go by myself. All the time he was teaching me."

On another occasion, he taught her to drive a car. Sister Sullivan said today she can't remember whether the car was a model-T or a model-A Ford, but she does remember a few small details of that first lesson.

"He took me in this car, and let me get over there in the driver's seat," she recalled. "He sat next to me and he would say, 'Stop!' The most important thing was to learn to use the brakes."

Like President Hinckley's children, Sister Sullivan says she always knew her brother had great potential, but "not in her wildest dreams" did she think he would one day lead one of the world's fastest-growing churches.

"Once in a while I look at him at the pulpit and think, 'It just can't be,' " she said.

E-mail to: sarah@desnews.com