Donna Packer, wife of the late LDS apostle Boyd Packer, dies at 94

Devoted genealogy researcher and school volunteer Donna Edith Smith Packer died Saturday at age 94.

She was the wife of Boyd K. Packer, a former president of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, who died in 2015.

Donna Packer was born in Brigham City on Oct. 20, 1927, to William Waldamer Smith and Nellie Edith Jordan, according to a church news release. She excelled in playing the violin and piano. She received a scholarship to study music at then-Weber State College.

While attending school, Donna Packer met Boyd Packer at a church meeting, where he was the guest speaker. “I couldn’t say I knew he was the one,” she said later, “but I knew he was the kind of person I wanted to marry.”

They wedded July 28, 1947, in the Logan Temple. The couple had 10 children. They spent most of their lives in Brigham City, apart from a three-year stint in Boston, where they oversaw the New England Mission starting in 1965.

A longtime community and school volunteer, Donna Packer received the “Exemplary Woman of the Year Award” from then-Ricks College in 1973. Relatives remembered her as an avid genealogist, and she earned a certificate in family history from Brigham Young University in 2012, when she was 84.

Boyd Packer served as an apostle for 45 years, from April 9, 1970, until his death July 3, 2015, at age 90. He offered praise for his wife during his last General Conference address in April 2015.

“When it comes to my wife, the mother of our children, I am without words,” the church leader said. “… I am grateful for each moment I am with her side by side and for the promise the Lord has given that there will be no end.”

Funeral arrangements are yet to be determined.