Thella Wilson Brock (1921-) was a Brigham Yong University student who later became did undercover FBI work with her husband.
Thella Wilson was born on May 8, 1921, in Tridell, Utah, to Seth and Alta Morrill Wilson. Thella was the middle of nine children, including a younger sister who died of pneumonia at one-month old. In 1929, the Wilson family moved to Roosevelt, Utah, thirty miles away. While in high school, Thella saved money from her first job, a weekly babysitting service, to buy tap dancing lessons. In 1940, Thella Wilson started attending Brigham Young University. She stayed in college four years, particularly enjoying her English and American Poetry classes. She met her husband, Daniel Wesley Brock, on October 4, 1943, when he came into the Logan photo lab where she worked as a secretary. Daniel Brock joined the L.D.S. church in June 4, 1944 and was married to Thella on October 4, 1944 in her Aunt Rhoda’s home. On January 16, 1958, FBI Agent Lee Meyers came into Daniel Brock’s photographic studio and asked to talk to him and Thella. He asked them to keep track of subversive people within Los Angeles, namely Communists. From that time on, Thella and Daniel Brock attended Communist Party club meetings and lectures in L.A. Thella Brock came to know the aims and beliefs of the Communist Party during the Cold War. On March 17, 1979, an FBI agent called Daniel Brock and dismissed him and Thella from informant work. Throughout her life, Thella Brock was very active in political developments and tirelessly campaigned for conservative values and legislation. Ironically, in 1989, she served a full time mission for her church in Boston, Massachusetts, and did not see one broadcast related to the Fall of Communism, including tearing down the Berlin Wall. In 1998, she published a book about her espionage work entitled, Operation Housewife: Communist FBI informant.
From the guide to the Thella W. Brock papers, 1943-2004, (L. Tom Perry Special Collections)
