The home where Thomas S. Monson grew up in Salt Lake City, at 311 W. 500 South, was called “Condie Corner” because members of the Condie family — aunts, uncles and cousins — had lived there since Gibson Condie emigrated from Scotland in 1850, according to his biography, “To the Rescue,” by Heidi Swinton.

The year Monson was born, Charles Lindbergh made the first non-stop flight from New York to Paris in his plane, the Spirit of St. Louis. It was the same year talking pictures hit local theaters.

Monson told his schoolteacher he wanted to be a cowboy, but his mother made him go back and tell her he wanted to be a lawyer or banker, according to “To the Rescue.”

Monson and his wife Frances loved big-band music and they went to dances most Saturdays. They danced to band leaders such as Tommy Dorsey, Jimmy Dorsey, Stan Kenton and Glenn Miller, according to “To the Rescue.”

He was so rowdy when a young boy, Monson made his Primary president cry, according to “To The Rescue.”

When Monson was called as a bishop in the LDS Church there were just more than 1,400 wards in the church. Today there are 30,016, according to mormonnewsroom.org.

Monson was appointed by President Ronald Reagan to serve on the President’s Task Force for Private Sector Initiatives in December 1981, according to LDS.org.

Monson would tell the elders in the Toronto Canada Mission that “You can’t sell apples out of an empty apple cart.” Meaning, they needed to carry copies of the Book of Mormon with them, according to Wayne Chamberlain, a friend of Monson.

During a Murdock Travel Christmas Party at the Lion House, Monson was invited to come and sit on Santa’s lap. Monson sat on his knee and Santa asked, “Tommy, what do you want for Christmas?” Monson was laughing so hard he almost fell off Santa’s knee. Monson is a very good sport and loves a good joke or prank, according to Chamberlain.

Monson has a photographic mind and has used it to recall stories right at the pulpit, according to Chamberlain.

While he was serving as mission president in Toronto, LDS.org notes that Monson helped oversee the new construction of 12 meeting houses and established the Toronto Stake.

Brent Ashworth, of Provo, was teaching his son how to fly fish off the bridge at Vivian Park in Provo Canyon one day when his son threw the reel back and the line got caught on a tree behind them and across the street. A car stopped and Monson got out and untangled the line. Ashworth said Monson was “laughing his head off.”

On March 5, 1974, Monson performed the marriage of his daughter, Ann, to Roger Dibb in the Salt Lake Temple. A month later he received a master’s degree in business administration from BYU, according to “To The Rescue.” 

In a two-and-a-half-year period of time between February 2008 and June 2010, lds.org says Monson dedicated 11 temples.