Olive Lora Cook Derbidge

10 October 1870–31 May 1959

Born 10 Sept./10 Oct. 1870 in Salt Lake City.[1] Daughter of Joseph Derbidge and Jane Cook.[2] Member of the Salt Lake City Nineteenth Ward.[3] Baptized as a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints by her father, 12 Oct. 1878.[4] Attended the University of Utah Normal School, 1892–1894.[5] Assistant secretary in the Nineteenth Ward Relief Society, 1895.[6] Served as assistant secretary of the Primary general board, 1897–1905, and as secretary, 1905–1911.[7] Worked as a stenographer, by 1900.[8] Traveling companion of EBW to several conferences, 1903.[9] Married Andrew Hyrum Christensen, 2 Dec. 1903, in Salt Lake City; two children.[10] Named the children’s magazine of the Church, the Children’s Friend.[11] Secretary of the Relief Society general board under EBW, 1911–1913.[12] Member of the Author’s Club, 1921–1959.[13] Member of the Salt Lake Stake Relief Society board, until 5 Jan. 1924; released due to ill health.[14] Died 31 May 1959 in Salt Lake City.[15]

 

[1] Record of Members Collection, 1836–1970, Nineteenth Ward, Salt Lake Stake, Early to 1886, p. 11, Olive Derbidge, CR 375 8, box 4709, folder 1, images 160–161/644 (restricted access), CHL. “Endowments of the Living, 1851–1889,” The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Salt Lake Temple, vol. A, 1893–1900, p. 109, line 3906, Olive Lora Derbidge, 27 Nov. 1895, microfilm 184067, DGS 5271181 (restricted access), FHL. “Family Tree,” database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org, accessed 3 Mar. 2021), Olive Lora Cook Derbidge (KWCP-LRN).

[2] Record of Members Collection, 1836–1970, Nineteenth Ward, Salt Lake Stake, Early to 1886, p. 11, Olive Derbidge, CR 375 8, box 4709, folder 1, images 160–161/644 (restricted access), CHL. “Endowments of the Living, 1851–1889,” The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Salt Lake Temple, vol. A, 1893–1900, p. 109, line 3906, Olive Lora Derbidge, 27 Nov. 1895, microfilm 184067, DGS 5271181 (restricted access), FHL. 

[3] Olive Derbidge Christensen, “To Present at Old Friends Club 1946,” in “Family Tree,” database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org, accessed 4 Jan. 2021), 1946, Olive Lora Cook Derbidge (KWCP-LRN), Memories.

[4] Record of Members Collection, 1836–1970, Nineteenth Ward, Salt Lake Stake, Early to 1886, p. 11, Olive Derbidge, CR 375 8, box 4709, folder 1, images 160–161/644 (restricted access), CHL. 

[5] Catalogue of the University of Utah Including the Territorial Normal School, 1893–94 and 1894–1895, with List of Students for 1892–93 and 1893–94 (Salt Lake City: University of Utah, 1893, 1894).

[6] “Nineteenth Ward Society,” Salt Lake Herald, 10 July 1895, 5.

[7] The Children’s Friend, Jan. 1902–Dec. 1907.

[8] 1900 U.S. Census, Salt Lake City, Salt Lake Co., UT, ED 31, p. 5A, Olive L. Derbidge.

[9]  EBW, Diary, 7–8 Aug. 1903. 

[10] Salt Lake Co., UT, County Clerk, Marriage Records, 1887–1965, vol. O, p. 110, cert no. 13811, Andrew H. Christensen and Olive L. Derbidge, microfilm 429059, DGS4705935, image 585/787, FHL. 1910 U.S. Census, Salt Lake City, Salt Lake Co., UT, ED 132, p. 12, Olive D. Christensen.

[11] “How the Children’s Friend Got Its Name,” Children’s Friend, Apr. 1940, 163.

[12] Chronology, 2 Oct. 1910, Diaries of Emmeline B. Wells (https://www.churchhistorianspress.org/emmeline-b-wells/events?lang=eng#18901928, accessed 28 Sept. 2021). Carol Cornwall Madsen, Emmeline B. Wells: An Intimate History (Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 2017), 446.   

[13] “S.L. Woman, Church Aide, Dies at 88,” Deseret News and Telegram (Salt Lake City), 1 June 1959.

[14] Salt Lake Stake Relief Society, Minutes and Records, 1882–1973, LR 604 14, CHL, 1921–1922, image 63/91, 1923–1925, image 6/202.

[15] Utah Department of Public Health, Utah Death Records, 1959–1964, Death Certificates, box 113, nos. 5–8, 1959, Registrar’s no. 1237, State file no. 59-18-1295, Olive Lora Derbidge Christensen, 31 May 1959, DGS 101152033, image 1152/2672, FHL. “Olive Lora Cook Derbidge Christensen,” Salt Lake City Cemetery, Salt Lake City, Salt Lake Co., UT, Find a Grave, posted 31 May 1959, memorial no. 103357576 (http://findagrave.com, accessed 4 Jan. 2021).