Benson, Ezra Taft

U.S. Secretary of Agriculture under Eisenhower, apostle and later president of the LDS church.

Ezra Taft Benson was United States Secretary of Agriculture January 21, 1953 – January 20, 1961.

Ezra Taft Benson served in the Eisenhower Presidency, as an Apostle, and later President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Ezra Taft Benson, the thirteenth president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, is the son of Sarah S. Dunkley and George Taft. He was raised on the family farm. He entered Utah State Agricultural College at Logan in 1918 and stayed there until 1921 when he left for the church's required period of missionary work. His two years were spent in Europe. Benson returned to the farm but was able to complete his B.S. degree at Brigham Young University in 1926. Later that year he married Flora Smith Amussen. In 1929 Benson began work with the University of Idaho, first as county agricultural agent in Preston and then in 1930 as head of a new department of agricultural economics and marketing. He also helped organize the Idaho Cooperative Council, in part as a response to the Depression, and in 1933 became its secretary. Through this time Benson remained an active Latter-day Saint and served a stint as president of the Boise stake (congregation). Benson represented the council in Washington, D.C., for a number of years and as a result in 1939 was invited to become the executive secretary of the National Council of Farmer Cooperatives. Shortly after the beginning of World War II, he was asked by President Franklin D. Roosevelt to serve on the National Agricultural Advisory Commission. He emerged, however, as a major critic of the Roosevelt policy of farm subsidies and control. In Washington Benson also served as president of the Washington stake of his church. In 1943 Benson was selected as a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles which head the administration of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He retired from public life and moved to Salt Lake City to take up his duties there. He served as president of the European mission and assumed the task of coordinating relief work after the end of the war. Through the 1940s, however, he kept his hand in farm issues and remained a constant critic of what he considered the government's paternalistic intervention in the farming business. In 1952 President Dwight D. Eisenhower selected Benson as the new U.S. Secretary of Agriculture. He was granted a leave of absence from the church to assume his new duties in Washington. He served in that position through all eight years of the Eisenhower administration.

Ezra Taft Benson was born on 4 August 1899 to George Taft Benson Jr. and Sarah Dunkley in Idaho. He married Flora Amussen in 1926 and received his master's degree in Agriculture from Iowa State College in 1927. In 1950, he joined the cabinet of President Dwight D. Eisenhower as Secretary of Agriculture. He remained in that position until 1958. In 1943, Benson was ordained to the LDS Church's Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. He became president of the Church in 1985 and served until his death in 1994.

Benson served as the United States Secretary of Agriculture during the Eisenhower administration from 1953-1961.

U.S. Secretary of Agriculture, 1952-1960. Member of Council of the Twelve Apostles.

Ezra T. Benson served as Secretary of Agriculture for the United Stares and President of the LDS Church.

United States Secretary of Agriculture and 13th president of the Mormon Church.

Politician and fourteenth president of the Mormon Church.

Theodore Roosevelt Dalton was born 3 July 1901 in Carroll County, Virginia, the son of Currell and Lodoska Maritn Dalton. he received his B.A. from the College of William and Mary as well as his law degree. Dalton was Commonwealth's Attorney for Radford, Virginia and state senator from 1944-1960. He was the Republican Party candidate for governor in 1953 and 1957. Dalton was appointed federal judge for the Western District of Virginia. His adopted son was John N. Dalton who served as governor of Virginia. Ted Dalton died 30 October 1989.

Cabinet member, Secretary of Agriculture; interviewee b.1899.