Born: 23 March 1906, Salt Lake City, Utah

First Council of the Seventy: 7 October 1938

Quorum of the Twelve Apostles: 8 October 1953 (age 47)

Died: 1 November 1971 (age 65), Salt Lake City, Utah

When John A. Evans, general manager of the Deseret News, passed away unexpectedly, he left behind a wife and nine children. The youngest was a ten-week-old boy named Richard Louis Evans. The courageous widow determined to rear the family as their father would have desired, always keeping alive a love for him in the hearts of her children.

The renown and excellence achieved by her youngest son bespeaks loudly the success of her untiring and noble efforts. The name, voice, and uplifting messages of Richard L. Evans were known throughout the world by Latter-day Saints and others alike, chiefly through the nearly forty-year period that he broadcast his ennobling thoughts by narrating the famed Mormon Tabernacle Choir radio program.

Being a widow’s son made earning his own livelihood an early necessity for young Richard. He was diligent and resourceful—raising and selling flowers, carrying a paper route, working behind a soda fountain, driving trucks, selling woolen goods, and surveying on a railroad crew. For Richard these odd jobs were the means of reaching higher goals, and he soon entered LDS University and then the University of Utah. But his pursuit of education and a generous scholarship were shortly forfeited to accept a higher calling, that of a missionary for the Church. He traveled to Great Britain, where besides teaching the gospel he edited the Millennial Star. Here he had a taste of journalism, an area in which he later rendered great service, editing the Improvement Era and being instrumental in the creation of the Church magazines—the Ensign, New Era, and Friend. He wrote fourteen books, many of which were published by Harper and Row, and had numerous articles appear in newspapers and magazines across the nation. He was also known in countries throughout the world as president of Rotary International, an office he held in 1966.

Upon completing his British mission, Richard L. Evans was hired as an announcer for KSL Radio, the job that led him to the accomplishment for which he is best known. He provided the beautiful voice and inspiring messages for “Music and the Spoken Word,” the weekly program which has eminated for more than seven decades from Temple Square. After only ten months at KSL, he began broadcasting with the Tabernacle Choir and continued to work his way up to be director of the radio station. Meanwhile, he finished two degrees at the University of Utah—a bachelor’s degree in English and a master’s degree in economics. He also married during this time and began rearing a family of four sons.

In 1938 he was called to serve in the First Council of the Seventy, and in 1953 he became an apostle in the Quorum of the Twelve. He filled these Church assignments with untiring dedication, wielding a great influence for good in the lives of thousands until his death on 1 November 1971. In an article written at the time of Elder Evans’s death, Elder Marion D. Hanks found an appropriate symbol of his widespread impact. As Elder Evans lay confined to a hospital bed “on the last Sabbath morning of his mortal life, his voice, by recording, was on coast-to-coast networks issuing a challenge for courage in time of adversity.” [1]

Notes

[1] Marion D. Hanks, “Elder Richard L. Evans: Apostle of the Lord,” Ensign, December 1971, 3; see also 2–9.