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Eldred G. Smith with his first wife, Jeanne, who traveled with Eldred until she died in 1977. Photo courtesy E. Gary Smith.

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Eldred G. Smith, the oldest emeritus general authority in the LDS Church, poses for a portrait in his home in Salt Lake City on Friday, March 2, 2012. SPENSER HEAPS/Daily Herald

Spenser Heaps

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Eldred Smith speaking at General Conference, sometime between 1947 and 1979. Photo courtesy E. Gary Smith. Copyright Intellectual Reserve.

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Elder Eldred G. Smith, the oldest LDS general authority and possibly the oldest man in Utah, died Thursday night. He was 106 years old.

Smith, who was born in Lehi, was the emeritus church patriarch. He was officially relieved of those duties in 1979, when then-Church President Spencer W. Kimball got rid of the churchwide position to make way for stake patriarchs. A year ago, when the Daily Herald profiled him, he had five children, 24 grandchildren, 45 great-grandchildren and 19 great-great-grandchildren.

His calling to the position actually was hereditary. The LDS Church’s first patriarch was Joseph Smith, Sr., the father of the church’s first prophet, in 1833. Before his death, Joseph Sr. ordained his son Hyrum to take his place. Since Hyrum was martyred in 1842, successive church patriarchs were as close as possible to direct descendants of Joseph, Sr. and Hyrum. Eldred Smith is Hyrum’s great-great grandson.

At general conferences, he was sustained as a “prophet, seer and revelator” just like the First Presidency and members of the Quorum of the Twelve, and he spoke in every conference until he was granted emeritus status.

During his 32 years as church patriarch, he traveled to all of the continents with his first wife, Jeanne. According to Smith’s estimation, he gave more than 18,000 blessings. Even after being given emeritus status, Smith continued to occupy an office at the Joseph Smith Memorial Building, and to renew his temple recommend directly from the prophet, like other active general authorities do. And, since he still held the rank of patriarch in the Melchizedek Priesthood, he also gave a few hundred more patriarchal blessings at his downtown office.

He also spent time sharing Smith family artifacts. Eldred and his second wife, Hortense, gave firesides and displayed items such as a trunk Hyrum Smith loaned to his brother Joseph. Joseph said he used the trunk to hide the golden plates he translated into the Book of Mormon.

The LDS Church released this a statement reflecting on Smith’s death: “The Church lost a valued friend and respected leader with the passing of Patriarch Eldred G. Smith. He was a man who lived a Christ-centered life as he faithfully served as patriarch to the church. We pray for the Lord’s blessing to be upon his family at this tender time.”