Gibson, Novella Frances Sargent

Biography

Novella Frances Sargent Gibson was born and raised in rural Caroline County in northcentral Virginia. She dedicated her life to her family, her community, and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Baptized in 1906, Novella lived to be 93 years old and witnessed dramatic changes over the course of her life. At the time of her conversion, segregation was at a zenith in the United States as well as in her new faith. She had joined a church that barred people of black-African descent from the lay priesthood and from temple worship (other than baptisms for the dead). Before she died, however, she not only attended the Washington D.C. temple for herself but served as an ordinance worker to assist patrons in receiving rituals there too. Novella endured ostracism from those on the outside of her faith and racism from those on the inside and yet remained committed to the Latter-day Saint cause because, as she recalled, she “had seen the power of God.”[1]

Novella was born on 1 September 1892 in Golansville, a small unincorporated community in Caroline County, Virginia. Her parents, Nellie Gray Patron Sargent and John Sargent, had seven children, of which Novella was the fourth.[2] The Sargent family first encountered the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints when Novella’s mother Nellie opened her home to local missionaries for occasional meals and laundry. Eventually, Nellie accepted the missionaries’ invitation to hear their gospel message. On 19 August 1906, missionaries Thomas E. Ricks from Rexburg, Idaho, and John Clement Farr from Ogden, Utah, baptized the entire Sargent family (except for Novella’s father) in a creek near Golansville.[3] Although John was never baptized, he respected the family’s involvement with the church and was friendly to Mormons in the area.[4]

Whoever recorded the Sargent family baptisms in the official registry scrawled the words “a colored family” diagonally across the entries in the record book.[5] They were thus noted in church records as “colored” at the same time that the family’s conversion to a “white church” caused tension with some of the Sargent’s neighbors. Following her family’s baptism, Novella recognized a shift in the way her black friends and neighbors treated them. She bluntly recalled, “We were called ‘White Niggers’ and many people we trusted as friends began to tell stories about us.” The family was ostracized in other ways as well: “We were left out of social functions and weddings and didn’t receive invitations. We were shunned because we were Mormons,” Novella indicated.[6]

As a teenager, Novella left Golansville and moved to Washington D.C. in search of employment. Novella found work and eventually located the Washington D.C. congregation of the church. There she worshipped with Latter-day Saint apostle and U.S. Senator Reed Smoot and his wife Alpha Mae Eldredge Smoot. Novella became friends with the Smoots and especially valued Alpha Mae’s kindnesses to her. Novella described Alpha Mae as “full of love and compassion,” dispositions which were on display one crowded Sunday when Novella experienced racism at church. Worship services that Sunday were cramped and the only vacant seat in the room was next to Novella. A white man who arrived late noticeably refused to take the seat next to Novella but opted to stand instead. After about ten minutes, Alpha Mae Smoot discerned the situation and left her spot to sit by Novella. The man then promptly took the seat that Alpha Mae had vacated. Regarding the event, Novella said, “Those things don’t hurt me. Just pray for them. That’s all, because they really don’t know what they are doing.”[7]

On 18 June 1913, four years after her arrival in Washington D.C., Novella married Joseph Milton Gibson. The couple was married for over fifty years before Joseph passed away in 1966. Like her father, Novella’s husband never joined the church but he respected his wife’s membership.[8] Novella and Joseph had two children together, Frances and Joseph Jr., both of whom also opted not to join the church. [9] Their home became a regular gathering place for extended family members. Novella’s nephew, Raymond W. Keys, recalled, “I used to go up to Washington quite a bit. When I was going up there, I didn’t go out in too many other places. I was at Novella’s house more so than I was at anybody else’s house. They sent me a Christmas card, ‘From my house to your house.’ I laughed because I practically lived there at all times.”[10]

Relatives also recalled Novella’s dedication to and involvement in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Because some of her Mormon family members lived far away from chapels and did not have the opportunity to attend church regularly, Novella would save paperwork from her meetings and bring them to her relatives when she visited their homes so that they could study the latest lessons.[11]

Surviving Relief Society rolls and minutes attest to Novella’s devotion to the church’s women’s organization. From 1942 to 1971, Relief Society records of the Capitol Ward and College Park Ward detail Novella’s involvement. She was consistently on the Relief Society rolls and regularly attended weekly meetings where she offered prayers and bore testimony to her fellow sisters. On 1 March 1950, for example, Novella offered the closing prayer after a lesson titled “Jesus returns to the temple daily.” On 11 May 1960, Novella enjoyed a Relief Society potluck luncheon and participated in sewing and quilting in preparation for the Relief Society bazaar. On 7 November 1962, Novella was one of nine sisters who bore their testimonies following a lesson about being “engaged in a good cause.” Similarly, on 2 November 1965, Novella helped with a lesson on “the resurrection of man and earth’s destiny,” after which she bore her testimony. Such evidence peppers the Relief Society minutes of her D.C. wards and demonstrates Novella’s commitment to her faith and the sisterhood which she found there.[12]

Novella also sang in her ward’s choir and contributed to her family’s genealogy work. Perhaps because she was barred from full temple admission for most of her life, she was also known for her love of the temple.[13] Following the Washington D.C. Temple’s completion in 1974, she attended to perform baptisms for her deceased ancestors and told her bishop she wanted to go to the temple for “as long as I can.” She longed for the day when she would be allowed to receive the highest rituals of her faith in the temple. In the meantime, she counseled the young women in Washington D.C. to “take advantage of the privileges they have right in their grasp” to attend the newly completed temple and prepare for temple marriages.[14]

In 1976, at age 83, Novella traveled to Salt Lake City with her daughter-in-law and there attended the church’s General Conference for the first time. She met with Latter-day Saint leader Neal A. Maxwell and enjoyed front row seating. Maxwell had been Novella's home teacher (a lay ministerial role) while he lived in D.C. in the 1950s and had continued to correspond with her after he moved to Utah. The Brigham Young University student newspaper, The Daily Universe, did a feature article on Novella’s trip which was titled “Open the Gates of the Temple,” a fitting declaration for Novella’s visit.[15]

Just over two years later, on 8 June 1978, the gates of Latter-day Saint temples everywhere were opened for peoples of all races and ethnicities following the announcement of a revelation to then church president Spencer W. Kimball.[16] Just two-and-a-half weeks after that revelation, Novella attended the Washington D.C. temple to receive her endowment ritual for the first time. Novella was 85 years old at the time. It had been nearly 72 years since she had been baptized at age 13 in a creek in rural Caroline County, Virginia. Following her own experience at the temple, Novella accepted a calling to assist others in receiving their own rituals and found joy for many years serving in a place she had been barred from attending for most of her life. As her niece, Virginia Wright, recalled, “She was so happy when she got a chance to be in the temple. She was just one happy woman.”[17]

For her ninetieth birthday, the College Park Ward where she had worshipped for so much of her life, threw her a celebration and honored her life-long contribution to the faith. Novella passed away on 29 April 1986 in Washington D.C. at age 93.[18]

By Mary Banks and W. Paul Reeve

Primary Sources

Capitol Ward, Mount Vernon Stake. Relief Society minutes and records. LR 1396 14. Church History Library. Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Salt Lake City, Utah.

Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Record of Members Collection. Southern States Mission, Virginia District. Microfilm 1995. Family History Library. Salt Lake City, Utah.

College Park Ward, Chesapeake Stake. Relief Society minutes and records. LR 1861 14. Church History Library. Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Salt Lake City, Utah.

“Gibson.” Presiding Bishopric stake and mission census, 1914-1935, CR 4 311. 1950, CR 4 315. 1955-60, CR 4 316. Church History Library, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Salt Lake City, Utah.

Keys, Raymond W. Oral interview by Alan Cherry, 14 October 1986. Transcript. Charles Redd Center for Western Studies Oral History Project. L. Tom Perry Special Collections. Harold B. Lee Library. Brigham Young University. Provo, Utah.

United States. 1900 Census. Virginia, Caroline County, Madison District.

United States. 1910 Census. Virginia, Caroline County, Madison District.

United States. 1930 Census. District of Columbia, Washington City.

United States. 1940 Census. District of Columbia, Washington City.

Wright, Virginia K. Oral interview by Alan Cherry, 14 October 1986. Transcript. Charles Redd Center for Western Studies Oral History Project. L. Tom Perry Special Collections. Harold B. Lee Library. Brigham Young University. Provo, Utah.

Secondary Sources

“Births Reported.” Evening Star (Washington, D.C.), 31 March 1916, 8.

“Births Reported,” Evening Star (Washington, D.C.), 31 May 1918, 8.

Embry, Jessie L. Black Saints in a White Church: Contemporary African-American Mormons. Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 1994.

Kimball, Edward L. “Spencer W. Kimball and the Revelation on Priesthood.” BYU Studies 47, no. 2 (2008).

Richards, Debra E. “Open the Gates of the Temple.” The Daily Universe (Provo, Utah), 12 April 1976, 3-4, 9.

[1] Debra E. Richards, “Open the Gates of the Temple,” The Daily Universe (Provo, Utah), 12 April 1976, 4.

[2] United States, 1900 Census, Virginia, Caroline County, Madison District.

[3] Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Record of Members Collection, Southern States Mission, Virginia District, Microfilm 1995, Family History Library, Salt Lake City, Utah.

[4] Jessie L. Embry, Black Saints in a White Church: Contemporary African-American Mormons (Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 1994), 47.

[5] Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Record of Members Collection, Southern States Mission, Virginia District, Microfilm 1995, Family History Library, Salt Lake City, Utah.

[6] Richards, “Open the Gates,” 4.

[7] Embry, Black Saints in a White Church, 48; Richards, “Open the Gates,” 4.

[8] Embry, Black Saints in a White Church, 49.

[9] United States, 1930 Census, District of Columbia, Washington City, Tract 10.The Evening Star newspaper announced the birth of the couple’s son and daughter. See “Births Reported,” Evening Star (Washington, D.C.), 31 March 1916, 8 and 31 May 1918, 8.

[10] Raymond W. Keys, oral interview by Alan Cherry, 14 October 1986, transcript, Charles Redd Center for Western Studies Oral History Project, L. Tom Perry Special Collections, Harold B. Lee Library, Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah.

[11] Keys, oral interview by Cherry; Virginia K. Wright, oral interview by Alan Cherry, 14 October 1986, transcript, Charles Redd Center for Western Studies Oral History Project, L. Tom Perry Special Collections, Harold B. Lee Library, Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah.

[12] Novella is listed on the Relief Society Rolls for the Capitol Ward when she lived at 136 Bates St. N. W. and then at the same address when the College Park Ward was created. She eventually moved to 3915 8^th Street N. W. and remained in the College Park Ward. See Capitol Ward, Mount Vernon Stake, Relief Society minutes and records, LR 1396 14; and College Park Ward, Chesapeake Stake, Relief Society minutes and records, LR 1861 14, Church History Library, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Salt Lake City, Utah. The information on prayers and testimonies is based on a sampling of various years and is not exhaustive. For evidence of testimony bearing in the Capitol Ward see 29 November 1942; for evidence of prayers see 4 August 1943 and 1 March 1950. For evidence of testimony bearing in the College Park Ward see 4 January 1955, 1 March 1955, 6 April 1960, 7 November 1962 6 February 1963, 2 October 1963, 3 March 1965, 2 November 1965, 3 March 1971; for evidence of prayers see 26 October 1960, 23 May 1962.

[13] Wright, oral interview by Alan Cherry.

[14] Richards, “Open the Gates,” 3-4.

[15] Richards, “Open the Gates,” 3-4, 9.

[16] Edward L. Kimball, “Spencer W. Kimball and the Revelation on Priesthood,” BYU Studies 47, no. 2 (2008).

[17] Novella Francis Sargent (KW8C-JKC), ordinance records at FamilySearch.org (accessed 26 July 2019); Wright, oral interview by Cherry.

[18] Wright, oral interview by Cherry; Sargent (KW8C-JKC), at FamilySearch.org.

Documents

Click the index tab in the viewer above to view all primary source documents available for this person.