Mary Crandall Hales passed away on Sunday by incident of age at home in Salt Lake City.
Sister Hales died at 90 years old, five years after the passing of her husband, Elder Robert D. Hales of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles.
Sister Hales was born in Salt Lake City on Aug. 6, 1932. Her family moved to California when she was a young child, but she returned to Utah as a college student at Brigham Young University where she studied nutrition.
Once she left for college, the Crandall family moved to New York. While visiting her family in New York over the summer, Sister Hales met Elder Hales — who was a student at the University of Utah at the time — while attending their home ward in Queens.
“After I met her, I never went out with anyone else,” said Elder Hales in his biography. “We were together every evening after work for the first two months sharing family activities. She’d help me wash my car, and I’d help her babysit her brothers; it was as though we were never going to be apart.”
They continued dating in the fall when they returned to Utah for school and were married on June 10, 1953 in the Salt Lake Temple. They had two sons, Stephen and David.
Many described Sister Hales as a lifelong student of the gospel and a kind-hearted mother and wife.
“She taught us not only through her words, but through her actions,” said Stephen in a Church News release. “She will be remembered as one who loves the Lord, someone who passed faith and knowledge to rising generations.”
Viewings for Sister Hales will be held on Friday at 6 p.m. and Saturday at 10 a.m. at 200 South Eagle Ridge Drive in North Salt Lake, Utah. The funeral will be held on Saturday at 11 a.m. at the same location.