Biography

Russell Dewey Ritchie’s life played out against the backdrop of his family’s mixed racial heritage and only one generation removed from slavery. His father, Nelson Holder Ritchie was born enslaved in 1840, the son of mixed racial ancestry. His mother, Annie Cowan Russell, was white. After meeting missionaries from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Great Bend, Kansas, the family moved to Utah and converted. Russell was thus born and raised in Utah, the eleventh of twelve children. Despite not being ordained to the Latter-day Saint lay priesthood as a teenager, Russell was eventually ordained—at age 71—and like the rest of his siblings he received temple rituals before June 1978 when LDS leaders lifted their century-long racial ban. His life thus represents the mutability of racial identity over time and the difficulties of enforcing racial boundaries.

Russell Ritchie was eleven years old when his father and mother were denied access to the Salt Lake temple. The Ritchie family’s bishop told Nelson and his wife Annie that they were ineligible for temple admission because Nelson “had negro blood in him.”[1] There is no indication that Russell was aware of his parents’ denial, but he may have learned about the controversy surrounding his father’s racial identity just one year later when he turned twelve. Russell was not ordained to the faith’s Aaronic priesthood in 1910 following his twelfth birthday as was becoming increasingly common in Latter-day Saint congregations. In fact, at the same time that Russell became a teenager, the LDS Church formalized a process whereby young men advanced through the offices of deacon, teacher, and priest every two years between the ages of twelve and sixteen.[2]

Surviving records indicate that Russell Ritchie was enrolled in both Sunday School and the Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Association in his congregations, both of which were church organizations geared toward rearing committed Latter-day Saints. Ritchie nonetheless remained un-ordained to any office in his faith’s lay priesthood.[3] It is impossible to know the reason for his lack of ordination but given the denial of priesthood and temple admission which his father experienced, concern over Ritchie’s racial ancestry offers a likely explanation. The lack of priesthood ordination also meant that Ritchie could not serve a church mission, an increasingly common rite of passage at the turn of the twentieth century for young men raised in the faith. Two of his older sisters had already been married in the Salt Lake Temple by the time his father was denied admission but such inconsistency did not persuade Ritchie’s bishop in his father’s case and likely explains his denial too.[4]

Whatever concerns church leaders may have had over Ritchie’s racial ancestry, surviving public records almost universally describe him as white. His Salt Lake County birth record in 1898 listed him as white, as did the 1900 U.S. census. The 1910 census is the only exception. It defines Ritchie, his father, and his siblings that year as “Indian” rather than white.[5] Twenty-first century DNA studies of Ritchie family descendants do sometimes reveal Native American ancestry, but a greater degree of African ancestry prevails.[6] In 1918, when Ritchie registered for the World War I draft, the registrar described him as white with hazel eyes and brown hair and of medium height and medium build. In 1942, the registrar for the World War II draft also called him white and said he had gray eyes, brown hair, and a “ruddy” complexion, but only after marking and then erasing “light brown” as his complexion category. He was five-feet-eight-and-a-half-inches-tall in 1942 and weighed 160 pounds.[7]

Ritchie’s father died when he was 14 years old, leaving his mother a widow with at least four children still at home to care for.[8] Economic necessity likely meant that Ritchie and his sisters had to find work to help support themselves. By the time he turned 19, he had moved to Seattle, Washington, where he found work as a conductor for the Puget Sound Traction, Light, & Power Company which ran the city’s municipal street railway system.[9] Two years later he had moved to Los Angeles, California, where he worked in construction; he returned home to Salt Lake City by January 1921. A Latter-day Saint census found him that year living with his mother in the Burton Ward in the Salt Lake Granite Stake.[10] By 1930 Ritchie was back in Los Angeles where he worked as a “drug clerk” or pharmacist for a wholesale drug company, an occupation he would maintain for the rest of his life.[11]

In 1931, Ritchie married Lois Meyer at the Methodist Episcopal church in Orange County, California, and the young couple settled into a middle-class lifestyle in Los Angeles County.[12] They lived in Los Angeles, Alhambra, and Inglewood, over the next three decades and had one child together, Donald James Ritchie. Lois taught school and Russell established a career working in pharmaceuticals.[13] Both Lois and Russell registered to vote in California as Democrats.[14] Their son Donald graduated from San Fernando Valley State College and then attended law school at the University of Arizona.[15] Surviving sources thus suggest the family led a stable and contented life in California.

Ritchie may have maintained only nominal ties to his LDS faith while married to Lois. He is counted in a 1950 Latter-day Saint census but is absent from the 1930, 1935, 1940, 1955, and 1960 church census counts. The 1950 LDS census lists him as living in the Reseda, California, Latter-day Saint Ward and indicates that Lois and Donald were both “non-members.” The census indicates that Ritchie held no priesthood office and no other records have been found to specify his level of participation in the faith of his youth.[16] In 1962, when his son Donald married, the wedding was held at the Knox Presbyterian church in Inglewood.[17]

By 1970, however, something changed for Ritchie and he reinvigorated his connection to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Surviving records do not indicate what it was that prompted Ritchie’s return. It may have been that members of the Holly Park congregation in Inglewood, California, cultivated a relationship with him over the years and invited him to worship services or perhaps Ritchie took the initiative himself. In either case, the absence of priesthood ordination created an automatic barrier for Ritchie simply because the lay structure of the Latter-day Saint priesthood meant that practicing men in the faith all belonged to a given priesthood “quorum.” Without ordination Ritchie did not belong.

At some point Ritchie’s lack of ordination must have become a topic of conversation with the bishop of the Holly Park Ward, Donald Richard Kemp. What explanation Ritchie offered for his lack of ordination is impossible to know. Ritchie’s father had been dead for almost sixty years and Ritchie and his siblings had long passed as white. Time likely clouded family memory of their father’s racial ancestry if the surviving children were aware of it at all and distance from the ward and bishop who had enforced the restriction in 1909 meant that the various congregations where the siblings worshiped were unaware of the family’s racial history. Whatever Ritchie told his bishop, it seems evident that Kemp and Ritchie agreed to a plan that would culminate in Ritchie’s ordination as an elder in the faith’s higher or Melchizedek priesthood. To reach that goal Kemp ordained Ritchie to each succeeding office in the faith’s lower or Aaronic priesthood over the course of eight months. On March 29, 1970, Kemp ordained Ritchie a Deacon; he was 71 years old at the time and he finally received the priesthood he more typically would have been given at age 12. Every two to three months thereafter, Kemp ordained Ritchie to succeeding priesthood offices: teacher, then priest, and finally, on November 15, 1970, just shy of his seventy-second birthday, Ritchie received the Melchizedek priesthood and became an elder.[18]

Elder’s quorum records indicate that Ritchie thereafter became an active participant. He frequently offered prayers at quorum meetings and when leaders asked for volunteers to provide a fellow congregant a ride to church, Ritchie agreed. He found a sense of community in his quorum and soon began to prepare for temple rituals as well.[19]

On May 20, 1972, just weeks before his wife Lois passed away, Ritchie attended the Los Angles temple where he received the highest rituals of his faith and was sealed by proxy to his mother and father, a ritual denied his parents some 63 years earlier.[20] Two of Russell’s sisters had received temple rituals before their father was denied admission and in the intervening decades his remaining siblings had done so too. When two of the twelve siblings died before receiving their rituals, living family members completed them by proxy.[21] By 1972, Russell Ritchie was therefore the only remaining sibling who had yet to enter a Latter-day Saint temple. His sister Grace traveled to Los Angeles to be with him for the experience and to serve as proxy for their mother when Russell was sealed to their parents.[22]

The death of Ritchie’s wife Lois followed on the heels of his temple visit, a difficult loss for him to absorb. Lois passed away on June 3, 1972, and just one year later Ritchie attended the Salt Lake Temple where his sister Grace again joined him, this time to serve as proxy for Lois as Ritchie was sealed to her for eternity.[23]

Six months later Ritchie married his second wife, Sylvia May Jones Bunderson in Ogden, Utah.[24] Sylvia’s first husband had been killed in a car crash in June 1972 around the same time that Lois had died.[25] The new couple lived in Roy, Utah after their wedding and settled into church life in the Roy Thirteenth Ward. Sylvia served in the Relief Society and Primary there and in 1976 Russell was ordained a High Priest, another office in the faith’s Melchizedek priesthood.[26]

By 1977 the couple had moved to Tempe, Arizona where they spent the last years of their lives together.[27] It was there that Ritchie would have learned of the revelation in June 1978, lifting the faith’s ban on priesthood ordination and temple admission to people of Black African descent.[28] There is no surviving record to indicate Ritchie’s reaction to the revelation or if he connected his own experiences to it in any way. By that point he had been ordained to the priesthood for eight years and may have already resolved any personal struggles over the prior ban. In any case, he and his sister Grace were the only two of the twelve Ritchie siblings to live long enough to witness the lifting of the restrictions that had barred their father from priesthood ordination and temple admission in 1909 and left family members to navigate its inconsistencies on their own terms.

Sylvia Jones Ritchie passed away in June 1984 and Russell followed a year and a half later in December 1985.[29] He had just turned 87 years old. He was the son of a formerly enslaved father and he died in the late twentieth century, a stark reminder of the long shadow that slavery cast. His obituary described him as a retired pharmacist and member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. His funeral services took place in a Latter-day Saint chapel in Bountiful, Utah, after which his body was taken to Inglewood, California for burial.[30] He was laid to rest next to his first wife Lois in the Inglewood Park Cemetery.[31]

By W. Paul Reeve

Primary Sources

California. Orange County. Marriage License. Russell D. Ritchie and Lois E. Meyer. 22 August 1931.

California. U.S. Voter Registrations, 1900-1968. Los Angeles County. Alhambra City Precinct No. 80. 1944.

California. U.S. Voter Registrations, 1900-1968. Los Angeles County. Los Angeles City Precinct No. 2561-F. 1952.

Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Record of Members Collection. Holly Park Ward. CR 375 8. Church History Library. Salt Lake City, Utah.

Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Record of Members Collection. Sugar House Ward. CR 375 8, box 6743, folder 1, image 476. Church History Library. Salt Lake City, Utah.

“Couple to make Home in Tucson.” Van Nuys News and Valley Green Sheet (Van Nuys, California). 15 February 1962, 101.

“Couples Wed in Churches.” Valley Times (Los Angeles, California). 20 February 1962, 4.

Inglewood, California. Stake Melchizedek Priesthood Minutes and Records, 1939-1973. Holly Park Ward. Eighth Quorum of Elders. LR 4100 13, folder 114. Church History Library. Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Salt Lake City, Utah.

“Marriage Licenses.” Ogden Standard Examiner (Ogden, Utah). 14 December 1973, 37.

“Mrs. Russell Ritchie.” Santa Ana Register. 29 August 1931, 1.

“Ogdenite, 71, Dies in Texas after Mishap.” Ogden Standard Examiner (Ogden, Utah). 22 June 1972, 15.

“Ritchie, Lois Meyer.” Los Angeles Times. 6 June 1972, 36.

“Ritchie.” Presiding Bishopric stake and mission census, 1914, 1920, 1950. Family History Library. Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Salt Lake City, Utah.

“Roy LDS News.” Sun Chronicle (Roy, Utah). 25 April 1974, 5. 4 March 1976, 10. 15 September 1977, 9.

“Roy News.” Sun Chronicle (Roy, Utah). 4 July 1974, 2.

“Russell D. Ritchie.” Arizona Republic (Phoenix, Arizona). 22 December 1985, 12.

“Russell D. Ritchie.” Salt Lake Tribune. 22 December 1985, 41.

“Sylvia Ritchie.” The Arizona Republic (Phoenix, Arizona). 17 June 1984, 25

“Sylvia Ritchie.” The Daily Herald (Provo, Utah). 17 June 1984, 4.

“Sylvia Ritchie.” Orem Geneva Times (Orem, Utah). 20 June 1984, 4.

United States. 1900 Census. Utah, Salt Lake County, Salt Lake City, Third Precinct.

United States. 1910 Census. Utah, Salt Lake County, Sugar House.

United States. 1920 Census. California, Los Angles County, Los Angeles.

United States. 1930 Census. California, Los Angeles County, Los Angeles.

United States. 1940 Census. California, Los Angeles County, Alhambra.

United States. California. World War II Draft Registration Cards. Russell Dewey Ritchie. National Archives and Records Administration. Washington, D.C.

United States. Washington State. World War I Draft Registration Cards, 1917-1918. Russell Dewey Ritchie. National Archives and Records Administration. Washington, D.C.

Utah. Salt Lake County. Record of Births. Russell Dewey Ritchie. 21 November 1898. Microfilm 4,093,262. Family History Library. Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Salt Lake City, Utah.

Whitaker, John Mills. Memorandum from the daily journal of John M. Whitaker. December 1906 to March 1912. Typescript of transcripts from John M. Whitaker journal. J. Willard Marriott Library. University of Utah. Salt Lake City, Utah.

Secondary Sources

Hartley, William G. “From Men to Boys: LDS Aaronic Priesthood Offices, 1829-1996.” Journal of Mormon History 22, no. 1 (Spring 1996): 80-136.

Kimball, Edward L. “Spencer W. Kimball and the Revelation on Priesthood.” BYU Studies 47, no. 2 (2008): 4-78.

Ritchie, Russell Dewey. FindAGrave.com.

[1] John Mills Whitaker, Memorandum from the daily journal of John M. Whitaker (December 1906 to March 1912), typescript of transcripts from John M. Whitaker journal, 150, J. Willard Marriott Library, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah.

[2] William G. Hartley, “From Men to Boys: LDS Aaronic Priesthood Offices, 1829-1996,” Journal of Mormon History 22, no. 1 (Spring 1996): 80-136.

[3] “Ritchie,” Presiding Bishopric stake and mission census, 1914-1935, 1950, Family History Library, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Salt Lake City, Utah.

[4] Russell’s sister Olive Ellen Ritchie Cleverly was married in the Salt Lake Temple in 1899, when Russell was an infant. See W. Paul Reeve, “Olive Ellen Ritchie Cleverly,” at CenturyofBlackMormons.org.  His sister Elizabeth “Bessie” Ritchie Rogers was married in the Salt Lake Temple in 1904.

[5] Utah, Salt Lake County, Record of Births, Russell Dewey Ritchie, 21 November 1898, Microfilm 4,093,262, Family History Library, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Salt Lake City, Utah; United States, 1900 Census, Utah, Salt Lake County, Salt Lake City, Third Precinct; United States, 1910 Census, Utah, Salt Lake County, Sugar House.

[6] See W. Paul Reeve, “Nelson Holder Ritchie” at CenturyofBlackMormons.org.

[7] United States, California, World War II Draft Registration Cards, Russell Dewey Ritchie, National Archives and Records Administration, Washington, D.C.

[8] “Ritchie,” Presiding Bishopric stake and mission census, 1914-1935, Family History Library, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Salt Lake City, Utah.

[9] United States, Washington State, World War I Draft Registration Cards, 1917-1918, Russell Dewey Ritchie, National Archives and Records Administration, Washington, D.C.

[10] United States, 1920 Census, California, Los Angeles County, Los Angeles; “Ritchie,” Presiding Bishopric stake and mission census, 1920, Family History Library, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Salt Lake City, Utah. The 1920 census for the Burton Ward included a stamp indicating it was actually taken on 15 January 1921.

[11] United States, 1930 Census, California, Los Angeles County, Los Angeles.

[12] “Mrs. Russell Ritchie,” Santa Ana Register, 29 August 1931, 1; California, Orange County, Marriage License, Russell D. Ritchie and Lois E. Meyer, 22 August 1931.

[13] United States, 1930 Census, California, Los Angeles County, Los Angeles; United States, 1940 Census, California, Los Angeles County, Alhambra; “Ritchie,” Presiding Bishopric stake and mission census, 1950, Family History Library, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Salt Lake City, Utah; “Mrs. Russell Ritchie”; California, Orange County, Marriage License.

[14] California, U.S. Voter Registrations, 1900-1968, Los Angeles County, Alhambra City Precinct No. 80, 1944; California, U.S. Voter Registrations, 1900-1968, Los Angeles County, Alhambra City Precinct No. 80, 1944; California, U.S. Voter Registrations, 1900-1968, Los Angeles County, Los Angeles City Precinct No. 2561-F, 1952.

[15] “Couple to make Home in Tucson,” Van Nuys News and Valley Green Sheet (Van Nuys, California), 15 February 1962, 101.

[16] “Ritchie,” Presiding Bishopric stake and mission census, 1950, Family History Library, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Salt Lake City, Utah.

[17] “Couple to make Home in Tucson,” Van Nuys News and Valley Green Sheet (Van Nuys, California), 15 February 1962, 101; “Couples Wed in Churches,” Valley Times (Los Angeles, California), 20 February 1962, 4.

[18] Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Record of Members Collection, Holly Park Ward. CR 375 8, Church History Library, Salt Lake City, Utah.

[19] Inglewood, California, Stake Melchizedek Priesthood Minutes and Records, 1939-1973, Holly Park Ward, Eighth Quorum of Elders, LR 4100 13, folder 114, item 54, 63, 65, 67, 70, 71, 74, 75, Church History Library, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Salt Lake City, Utah.

[20] Russell Dewey Ritchie (KWZ5-ZZW), ordinance records on FamilySearch.org, accessed 8 August 2021..

[21] This assessment is made from reviewing ordinance records on FamilySearch.org of the twelve Ritchie siblings.

[22] Russell Dewey Ritchie (KWZ5-ZZW), ordinance records on FamilySearch.org, accessed 8 August 2021.

[23] Lois Elva Meyer (LLMT-V89), ordinance records on FamilySearch.org, accessed 8 August 2021.

[24] “Sylvia Ritchie,” The Daily Herald (Provo, Utah), 17 June 1984, 4; “Marriage Licenses,” Ogden Standard Examiner (Ogden, Utah), 14 December 1973, 37. According to Sylvia’s obituary, the wedding took place on December 12, 1973, a presumably civil ceremony.

[25] “Ogdenite, 71, Dies in Texas after Mishap,” Ogden Standard Examiner, 22 June 1972, 15.

[26] “Roy LDS News,” The Sun Chronicle (Roy, Utah), 25 April 1974,5; “Roy News,” The Sun Chronicle, 4 July 1974, 2; “Roy LDS News,” The Sun Chronicle, 4 March 1976, 10; “Roy LDS News,” The Sun Chronicle, 15 September 1977, 9.

[27] “Sylvia Ritchie,” The Daily Herald, 17 June 1984, 4.

[28] Edward L. Kimball, “Spencer W. Kimball and the Revelation on Priesthood,” BYU Studies 47, no. 2 (2008): 4-78.

[29] “Sylvia Ritchie,” The Arizona Republic (Phoenix, Arizona), 17 June 1984, 25; “Sylvia Ritchie,” The Daily Herald, 17 June 1984, 4; “Sylvia Ritchie,” Orem Geneva Times (Orem, Utah), 20 June 1984, 4.

[30] “Russell D. Ritchie,” The Arizona Republic (Phoenix, Arizona), 22 December 1985, 12; “Russell D. Ritchie,” Salt Lake Tribune, 22 December 1985, 41.

[31] Russell Dewey Ritchie, FindAGrave.com.

Documents

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