Mormon World Records 9: Books

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by Seattle Jon:

Paul Skousen might not be the best known of the Skousens, but he did pen The Skousen Book of Mormon World Records. This is my tribute series to his good work. Previous Mormon World Records here.

Q: Has a Book of Mormon been to space?
A: The first copy of the Book of Mormon to go into outer space was carried aboard the space shuttle Discovery on April 12, 1985, when Senator Jake Garn (R-Utah) launched into orbit. When astronaut Don Lind took his trip in the space shuttle on April 29, 1985, he also carried with him his scriptures. That particular copy of the Book of Mormon has the distinction of traveling 2,511,592 miles through space during 110 orbits around the earth. Brother Lind donated the scriptures to the church where they were put on display at the Church museum.

Q: What was the first non-scripture endorsement from General Conference pulpit?
A: President David O. McKay stood up during October 1959 General Conference and warned the Saints of the dark powers rising among the nations of the world, and that most people had no idea such works were underway. He recommended all LDS read The Naked Communist, by W. Cleon Skousen. He repeated his plea at a subsequent General Conference.

Q: Were Book of Mormons found in the rubble of September 11th?
A: An Episcopal priest helping with the cleanup at ground zero of the destroyed World Trade Center buildings also collected dozens of Bibles and other sacred books from amidst the smoldering rubble. Among the items found was a copy of the Book of Mormon, smelling of burnt plastic but still in pretty good shape. The book most likely belonged to one of the hundreds of LDS who escaped the buildings before their collapse. Three Mormons died in the attack - two in one of the planes that hit the buildings, and another who was on the 108th floor of Tower 1.

Q: When was the quickest reading of the Book of Mormon?
A: In 1989, more than 700 Laurels and priests from nine stakes met for a regional conference in Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada. Each person was given a number and a page out of the Book of Mormon, had to find another youth with the same number, and then read to one another the page each had been given. As a group, the entire Book of Mormon was read in 11 minutes and 30 seconds.


Seattle Jon is a family man, little league coach, urban farmer and businessman living in Seattle. He currently gets up early with the markets to trade bonds for a living. In his spare time he enjoys movies, thrifting and is an avid reader. He is a graduate of Brigham Young University and the Japan Fukuoka mission field. He has one wife, four kids and three chickens.

Mormon World Records 8: Names

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by Seattle Jon:

Paul Skousen might not be the best known of the Skousens, but he did pen The Skousen Book of Mormon World Records. This is my tribute series to his good work. Previous Mormon World Records here.

Q: What are the most common LDS names?
A: The most common first names used in predominantly LDS Utah (as of 2000) are (most common first) BOYS: Jacob, Joshua, Tyler and Zachary; GIRLS: Madison, Emily, Hannah, Abigail and Samantha.

Q: Who is more recognizable? Joseph Smith or Brigham Young?
A: In a 1980 national survey, more people in the United States recognized the number two man's name, Brigham Young, than the name of the founder, Joseph Smith.

Q: Who was the first Jack Mormann?
A: In 1971, Jackson F. Mormann, known as Jack to his friends, was baptized with his wife after six months of lessons from the missionaries. They became members of the Philadelphia Stake.

Q: Who was the first Mormon Moorman?
A: For years, Esther Moorman was kidded about being a Mormon. Though the kidding didn't exactly encourage her to investigate the Church, it didn't stop her either. She (a widow) inquired about Mormons from a co-worker, and later, took her two sons to visit the Washington, D.C. temple. They invited the missionaries for more discussion, and were baptized in 1984. The family resided in the Akron, Ohio Stake.

Seattle Jon is a family man, little league coach, urban farmer and businessman living in Seattle. He currently gets up early with the markets to trade bonds for a living. In his spare time he enjoys movies, thrifting and is an avid reader. He is a graduate of Brigham Young University and the Japan Fukuoka mission field. He has one wife, four kids and five chickens.

Mormon World Records 7: Politics

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by Seattle Jon (bio)

Paul Skousen might not be the best known of the Skousens, but he did pen The Skousen Book of Mormon World Records. This is my tribute series to his good work. Previous Mormon World Records here.

Q: Who was the first Mormon senator?
A: Reed Smoot was the first member of the Church elected to the Senate, in 1902. Anti-Mormon efforts* delayed his being seated in the Senate, but after an investigation, he was allowed to begin his duties.

* Read this book and you might formulate a different opinion.

via Greg Newbold

Q: Who was the first woman state senator?
A: In 1896, Martha Hughes Cannon became the first woman elected as Utah state senator, and also the first woman state senator in the history of the United States.*

* I would add that she defeated her husband, who was also on the ballet.

Q: Were Mormon women really the first to vote in the history of the United States?
A: In February 1870, the Utah territorial legislature passed a statute permitting women to vote, making them the first female citizens in the nation to vote in a regular United States election.

Q: How long was the Missouri extermination order in effect?
A: It took 138 years, but in June 1976, Missouri Governor Christopher S. Bond rescinded the extermination order issued by Missouri Governor Lilburn W. Boggs in 1838. Boggs' extermination order stated, "The Mormons must be treated as enemies, and must be exterminated or driven from the State if necessary, for the public peace - their outrages are beyond all description." Up to that time the order was legally in effect. Governor Bond said Governor Boggs was clearly outside his legal and constitutional bounds and expressed "deep regret for the injustice and undue suffering which was caused by this 1838 order."

Mormon World Records 6: Pageants

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by Seattle Jon (bio)

Paul Skousen might not be the best known of the Skousens, but he did pen The Skousen Book of Mormon World Records. This is my tribute series to his good work. Previous Mormon World Records here.

Q: Who was the first member of the church to win the Miss Universe pageant?
A: The first member of the church to win the Miss Universe pageant was Linda Bement, Parley's 1st Ward, Parley's Stake, Salt Lake City, in 1960. Months after graduating from high school, Sister Bement won the Miss Utah and Miss USA contests and was crowned Miss Universe that same year. Bement tells of the counsel she received from President David O. McKay shortly after returning home from the pageant in Florida: "We met in his office one day, and he was so happy about me winning," she said. "He looked me in the eye and said, 'Don't forget you represent the youth of America.' I was so impressed that he wanted me to be a good example to more than Mormon youth ... he was thinking of America's youth."

Q: Can you give me two examples of future Miss Universes?
A: Christy Ann Cheney, 2, of the Yucaipa 2nd Ward, San Bernardino, California, East Stake, won the Miss Gorgeous Eyes 1983 context. Previously she had won the Miss Dream Girl California contest. Brittany Lynn Harper, 13 months old, of the Las Vegas 23rd Ward, won the 1988 National Pee Wee Miss of America contest. She received a fur coat, scepter, satin monogrammed sash, a U.S. savings bond, and a wardrobe.

Q: Has an LDS man ever won the Mr. Clean look-alike contest?
A: The only LDS man to win the distinction of resembling Mr. Clean is Wayne O'Dell, Mesa, Arizona. His shining bald head, prominent ear lobes and glistening smile helped him wipe away the competition in the 1985 Southwest Regional of the Mr. Clean look-alike contest.

Q: Has mormon modesty ever interfered with pageant rules?
A: For a long time, Utah was the only state that didn't hold a swimsuit competition for its Miss Utah/America contest. The broken rule was excused by Miss America pageant officials in Atlantic City in 1979 only because of "strong objections" in Utah, but there is no such exemption when Miss Utah arrives for the Atlantic City pageant.

Q: Speaking of swimsuits, what's up with the swimsuits BYU used to issue to coeds?
A: The BYU-issued swimsuit for women was, for two decades, a baggy, shapeless, ugliness worn and abhorred by nearly every coed who dared wear one to swim in the indoor pools. The suit prompted one single BYU male to boldly declare: "If I ever see a coed who looks good in one of those suits, I'm going to marry her." But by 1988 a more stylish suit was approved, much to the relief of males and females alike.

Mormon World Records 5

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by Seattle Jon (bio)

Paul Skousen might not be the best known of the Skousens, but he did pen The Skousen Book of Mormon World Records. This is my tribute series to his good work. Previous Mormon World Records here.

Note: This version of MWR is Hollywood-themed to celebrate the ending of the awards season.

Q: Who was the first Mormon movie star?
A: John Gilbert was born July 10, 1897, in Logan, Utah, into an LDS home and environment but didn't practice the religion as an adult. One of the first movie stars in Hollywood history, he became known as the "Great Lover of the Silver Screen." One movie critic called him the "Tom Cruise of the silent era." One list of the 100 most influential people in cinema ranked him number 28. He appeared in more than 100 films and is best known for his role in The Big Parade (1925), one of the last great silent films. It was the top box office earner until Gone With The Wind. He drank himself to death in 1936.

Q: What is the longest Book of Mormon quote used in a Hollywood film?
A: Alfred Hitchcock's Family Plot features the longest quote from the Book of Mormon in a major motion picture. During a funeral scene, a priest is heard reading verbatim eight verses (20-27) from 2 Nephi 9. Some of the producers and writers who collaborated with Hitchcock were LDS, and their influence can be spotted in several of his masterpieces.

Q: What was the strangest casting choice for a Mormon?
A: When an actor was needed in 1940 to portray the Prophet Joseph Smith in a feature-length movie, Brigham Young - Frontiersman, Hollywood producers chose somebody to help draw crowds: king of horror films, Mr. Vincent Price.

Q: What was the most money won by a Mormon on a TV game show?
A: In June 2004, Ken Jennings, 30, shattered records for the quiz show Jeopardy. Brother Jennings, a returned missionary from Madrid, defended his championship for 74 consecutive games, winning a total of $3,172,700. At BYU he was once ranked seventh in the nation among college quiz bowl teams.

Mormon World Records 4

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by Seattle Jon (bio)

Paul Skousen might not be the best known of the Skousens, but he did pen The Skousen Book of Mormon World Records. This is my tribute series to his good work. Previous Mormon World Records here.

Q: Who is/was the tallest Mormon man?
A: Shawn Bradley, who stands 7 feet 6 inches, is the tallest living Latter-day Saint, and possibly the tallest LDS ever. He was a very highly recruited basketball star from Emery High School in Castle Dale, Utah, and signed on with BYU where his reputation as a rebounder and shot-blocker followed him through a successful first season. After serving a mission, he signed on with the Philadelphia 76ers.

Q: Who is/was the shortest Mormon man?
A: Billy Barty, well known on TV and in movies, was 3 feet 9 inches tall. He served as an assistant ward clerk in his Studio City Ward, Hollywood, and worked to stop discrimination against short people. He joined the Church in 1963, two years after marrying his LDS wife from Idaho. He appeared in more than 150 motion pictures and hundreds of TV shows, beginning in the 1930s. Some of his most famous starring roles included the movies Willow, Legend and UHF [he didn't need no stinkin' badgers].

Q: What is the most widely circulated LDS joke?
A: In 1989, a story was submitted to Reader's Digest's "Life in the United States" by Kathy Skousen [related to Paul?] of South Jordan, Utah, River Ridge 3rd Ward. The editors called the local school to verify its accuracy, and then published it in their July 1989 issue that went to 16 million subscribers. Over the years the joke has spread to no fewer than 85 web sites with funny variations on the sex, age and setting. Here is the original joke:

For Drug Awareness Day, the school asked each child to bring a white t-shirt so an anti-drug slogan could be ironed onto it. After a frantic search, I found my daughter's only clean shirt, which already had something on the front. The back was blank, however, and I sent her off with it. When she came home that afternoon, she proudly displayed the shirt. The front of it proclaimed, "Families Are Forever." On the back was, "Be Smart, Don't Start!"

Mormon World Records 3

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by Seattle Jon (bio)

Paul Skousen might not be the best known of the Skousens, but he did pen The Skousen Book of Mormon World Records. This is my tribute series to his good work. Previous Mormon World Records here.

Q: Who has/had the lowest social security number in the church?
A: The lowest social security number in the church was 000-000-0001. It was reissued to Randy Jenkins of the Glendale, Arizona, Sixth Ward, in 1976. The number had previously been used, of course. However, Brother Jenkins just had to have that number! With a lot of tenacity and determination, he climbed over the federal bureaucracy and, with the help of his Arizona congressmen and senators, sparked the passage of a bill authorizing the reissue of the first 10 social security numbers. Congress agreed to reissue the numbers in 1976 "in the spirit of the Bicentennial celebration." However, after a few years of having to prove the number was a real one, Jenkins became fed up with the problems of being "number one" and applied for a regular number. Every time he wrote his number down, computers or people would reject it saying the number was a phony. Even at BYU, he was constantly taking letters and forms back and forth between professors when the BYU computerized class scheduling system wouldn't accept his SSN as proper student identification.

Q: What city has the most people hooked on candy bars?
A: Salt Lake City was the candy bar and marshmallow consumption capital of the nation in 1985. On a per-capita basis, Salt Lakers swallowed more candy bars than anyone else in the United States, prompting the editorial cartoonist for the Deseret News, Calvin Grondahl, to comment, "We don't spend a lot on light beer, so we go heavy on the chocolate. That's the way it is with people, you crack down on one vice and they go to something else!"

Q: Who owned the largest chicken in the church?
A: Former church historian and long-time chicken farmer Leonard Arrington and his wife, Harriet, were the proud owners of the largest chicken in the church in 1987. Okay, so this wasn't a live chicken, but where else do we put a 6-foot tall chicken who looks like it won't take no for an answer? This plastic-and-fiberglass bird showed up on the Arrington's front porch on Christmas Eve, 1987. Stepson Rick Sorenson had the bird flown in overnight as a Christmas present. When the bird was discovered out front on Christmas morning, Brother Arrington said, "We laughed and laughed for two hours straight."

Q: Who has been the oldest living man and woman in the church?
A: In October 1983, Encarnacion Banares Rampas of Cuzco, Peru, became the oldest woman in the church when she was baptized at the age of 118. She told the missionaries during her first visit to a church meeting, "I just like the feeling there." In 1980, Nicholas Santucho of Canada de Gomez, Argentina, became the oldest man in the church when he was baptized at the age of 116. His wife was baptized a week later at the age of 86. They had 17 children. "There is no secret to long life," Santucho said. "I have lived because God has wished it so."

Mormon World Records 2

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by Seattle Jon (bio)

Paul Skousen might not be the best known of the Skousen crew, but he did pen The Skousen Book of Mormon World Records and Other Amazing Firsts, Facts, and Feats. This is my little tribute to his good work. Read previous Mormon World Records here.

via U.S. National Archives

Q: Was a Mormon involved in raising one of the most recognized flags in the world?
A: The famous flag raising in 1945 on the captured Japanese island of Iwo Jima was made possible, in part, thanks to a Mormon. The original flag wasn't dramatic enough for the photographer, so Elder A. Theodore Tuttle, a marine, was sent to his ship to retrieve a larger flag. The resulting photo became world famous. As for that smaller flag, it was stowed away to see glory at another island on another day.

Q: What was the world's oldest unpaid medical bill?
A: When mobs broke into Carthage Jail in 1844 and murdered Joseph and Hyrum Smith, John Taylor was shot four times but survived. Dr. Thomas Barnes cared for Elder Taylor's injuries and nursed him back to health. In a letter dated November 6, 1897, Dr. Barnes gave his daughter, Miranda, graphic details of the shootings, and added, "We took the best care of him (John Taylor) we could till he left us. He got well but never paid us for skill or good wishes." Many decades later, Taylor's grandson, Raymond, became aware of the unpaid debt and decided to settle things with the family. In Santa Rosa, California, he finally located Mrs. Bertha Haskett. She was a direct descendant of Dr. Barnes. Upon hearing of the Brother Taylor's quest to pay his grandfather's medical bill, Mrs. Haskett declined money but suggested any funds to to Southern Illinois University to create a collection about Mormons in Illinois. She quit-claimed the bill to a history professor at the university, Dr. Stanley B. Kimball. Some time later, Taylor received this letter from Dr. Kimball: "Please consider this letter as a statement to you for the sum of $1 which will fully satisfy this more than one hundred year old medical bill." Taylor dispatched a dollar immediately.

Q: Who undertook the longest bus ride to an LDS temple in history?
A: In 1979, the longest round-trip bus ride for patrons attending the Mesa temple was for families in the Canal Zone of Panama. The 8,000-mile bus trek was over some narrow, dangerous roads through all kinds of weather and danger of attack by gangs of robbers in some areas. On January 12, 1979, several families were the first to make the journey. The $160/person trip required most of them to sell many of their personal belongings to afford the once-in-a-lifetime adventure.

Q: Who in the church has walked the farthest to church?
A: Ranking close to the top must be Annie Starling Pilcher of Enoch, Texas. For 43 years, she walked from her home to church and back again, a round trip of about 11.5 miles. This totaled more than 25,800 miles, or the equivalent of about once around the earth.

Mormon World Records 1

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by Seattle Jon (bio)

Mention the last name Skousen in front of a mormon and there's a good chance they'll know one. There is W. Cleon Skousen, prolific mormon theologian and notable anti-communist (The Naked Communist); there is Joel Skousen, "survival retreat" and "fallout shelter" design and construction expert; there is Mark Skousen, American economist, investment analyst, newsletter editor, and author of more than 25 non-fiction books; there is Royal Skousen, BYU professor of Linguistics and English and the leading expert on the textual history of the Book of Mormon; and finally, there is Paul Skousen, author of the The Skousen Book of Mormon World Records and Other Amazing Firsts, Facts, and Feats. Wait, what?!

Yes, Paul Skousen, son of W. Cleon Skousen, wrote a book of mormon records (not to be confused with the records the Book of Mormon came from. I'm not starting the rumor that Paul, not Joseph Smith, authored the Book of Mormon). Anyway, the book, published in 2004, is a treasure trove of mormon trivia. Here is the first of what I hope to be many mormon world record installations on MMM.

Q: When and where was the largest LDS toilet flush?
A: The largest LDS toilet flush (although City Creek Center probably broke the record) occurred on January 22, 1984 (a Sunday?!) in Salt Lake City. Public utility workers were struggling to repair a broken water main when suddenly a tremendous rushing noise could be heard as air was sucked into the open pipe leading into the city system. The rushing noise lasted 2-3 minutes. Workers knew the vacuum represented a very high demand for water perfectly timed with breaks people were taking during halftime television advertising of the Super Bowl. The workers estimated that some 10,000 toilets had been simultaneously flushed.

Q: Who is mormonism's, and possibly the world's, greatest linguist?
A: John Henry Jorgensen was fluent in 15 languages when the book was written (American Sign Language, Arabic, Arabic Sign Language, Eastern and Western Armenian, English, French, Georgian, Italian, Mandarin, Russian, Spanish, Syrian and Turkish). At the time of his graduation from BYU, he was learning an additional five languages (Japanese, Ukranian, Mongolian, Persian and Czech) and planned to learn an additional five.

Update: According to this 2005 article, John spoke 18 languages fluently, and another 10 conversationally. And guess what ... at the time the article was written he was already learning language No. 29 – “Furbish” – the official language of Hasbro’s Furby doll. It took John a month to learn Furbish, which he says wasn’t as hard as Arabic or Japanese.