President Benson Celebrates 88th Birthday

President Ezra Taft Benson, accompanied by his wife, Flora, celebrated his eighty-eighth birthday August 4 in a reception held in the Church Administration Building in Salt Lake City.

The reception was attended by many General Authorities, including President Gordon B. Hinckley and President Thomas S. Monson of the First Presidency, as well as members of the Quorum of the Twelve, the First Quorum of the Seventy, and the Presiding Bishopric, and their wives.

Birthday greeting cards and letters from throughout the world were displayed, and several musical numbers were performed. At one point, President Benson stood and sang with a barbershop quartet.

Among the gifts were handmade booklets from Primary children, many of them depicting President Benson riding a horse, on a mission, and reading the Book of Mormon.

A family dinner concluded the day’s celebration.

Ezra Taft Benson was born 4 August 1899 in Whitney, Idaho, to George T. Benson, Jr., and Sarah Dunkley Benson. He was the eldest of eleven children. President Benson married Flora Smith Amussen 10 September 1926 in the Salt Lake Temple. They have two sons and four daughters.