Former Relief Society General President Bonnie D. Parkin dies at age 84

SALT LAKE CITY — President Bonnie D. Parkin, 14th Relief Society general president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, died Monday, July 28, 2025, at age 84.

Prior to serving as general president from 2002 to 2007, Sister Parkin served on the Relief Society general board under Relief Society General President Elaine L. Jack and as second counselor to Young Women General President Janette Hales Beckham.

When Sister Parkin began her service as Relief Society general president, she said she prayed to know what the women of the Church needed. “I received a strong witness that we, His daughters, need to know that He loves us,” she said during the General Relief Society Meeting on Sept. 23, 2006.

“We need to know that He sees the good in us. Feeling His love encourages us to press forward, reassures us that we are His and confirms to us that He cherishes us even when we stumble and experience temporary setbacks.”

In an interview with President Julie B. Beck, who served as the 15th general president of Relief Society, Sister Parkin testified: “With God’s love, you can do just about anything required.”

She reminded the women of the Church: “How I feel His love may be different from how you experience it. The key is to come to understand how you feel that love. And once you’ve felt it, be willing to share it.”

Sister Parkin is the third Relief Society general president to die in the past six months. Sister Mary Ellen Smoot, 13th Relief Society general president, died in February; Sister Elaine L. Jack, 12th Relief Society general president, in June.

Bonnie Rae Dansie was born Aug. 4, 1940, in Murray, Utah, the third of five children born to Jesse Homer and Ruth Martha Butikofer Dansie. Growing up, she worked on the family farm as well as in Dansie’s Place, the family store.

Her parents passed their steadfast faith onto young Bonnie. She told the Church News in 1994: “My mother trusted me, and I feel that trust is one of the greatest gifts that she gave me. I felt a real obligation to never disappoint her. … [She] taught us, ‘Do what is right; let the consequences follow.’”

When Bonnie Dansie was 14 years old, family finances were tight during Christmas. A family in their town brought Christmas to them — a service the Dansies adopted as a family tradition.

“I remember one Christmas specifically,” Sister Parkin recalled. “It was Christmas Eve, and we heard of a family who had nothing. We did not have a lot of extra things either, but we did have fruit that was bottled. We had meat because we had our own cattle. We had some oranges. We each gave one of our own toys or possessions.

“My mother did not really get involved in all this. She let us plan the whole thing. We delivered the packages that night. I drove the car. My brothers jumped in the ditch because the family opened the door so soon. The kids were thrilled — there was something for Christmas.”

Sister Parkin graduated from Utah State University in 1962 with a bachelor’s degree in elementary education and early childhood development. After graduating, she taught third grade at Hannah Holbrook Elementary in Bountiful, Utah.

During her college years, she was a member of Sponsor Corps, a service organization; president of Kappa Delta Sorority; served on the homecoming committee; served in a student ward Relief Society presidency; was selected as a member of the Mortar Board, a national honor society; and served as vice president of the senior class.

In 1963, she met James L. Parkin, a first-year medical school student, on a blind date to the movies. “We shared great conversation, and I thought, `I’d like to date him some more,’” Sister Parkin recalled.

They married on July 1, 1963, in the Salt Lake Temple. They have four boys and 18 grandchildren. “She is my best friend and my best investment,” Brother Parkin said of his wife. He died in 2023.

In 1966, Brother and Sister Parkin moved to Seattle, Washington, for him to complete his medical residency. Soon after, he was called to serve in the bishopric. Away from family for the first time, with young children and with her husband gone much of the time, “that’s when I really started making gospel study a daily process in my life,” Sister Parkin said. “I would read to my children Bible stories. Because I was also reading the Book of Mormon, I connected the two, and this is when I learned to love the scriptures.”

As a family, they enjoyed hiking, backpacking, hunting, fishing, tennis, skiing and attending plays and musical events.

Through the years, she magnified a variety of callings, including as a stake Young Women president, ward Primary president, ward Relief Society president and counselor, and Sunday School teacher. She and her husband also served as mission leaders of the England London South Mission from 1997 to 2000.

She also served on the community council, the Great Books Foundation, as a PTA board member and president, as a docent for the Utah Symphony for elementary schools, and as a page on the Utah Senate floor.

During her time as the Relief Society general president, Sister Parkin taught Latter-day Saint women that their blessing and responsibility is to sustain and nurture the family unit. “Everyone belongs to a family, and every family needs to be strengthened and protected,” Sister Parkin taught in a Worldwide Leadership Training Meeting in 2006.

“My greatest help in becoming a homemaker came first from my own mother and grandmother and next from the Relief Society sisters in the different wards where we have lived. I learned skills; I saw modeled the joys that come from creating a home where others want to be,” she said.

Alongside President Susan W. Tanner, the Young Women general president at the time, Sister Parkin instituted a monthly combined opening exercises for Relief Society and young women.

“My belonging to Relief Society has renewed, strengthened and committed me to be a better wife and mother and daughter of God. My heart has been enlarged with gospel understanding and with love of the Savior and what He’s done for me,” said Sister Parkin during her October 2004 general conference address.

“Jesus is the Christ,” she testified. “He is my Savior, my Redeemer, and I’m ever grateful for His redeeming love and His obedience to our Heavenly Father.”

Funeral services are pending. This article will be updated.