Amy B. Lyman

Amy Cassandra Brown Lyman (February 7, 1872 – December 5, 1959) was the eighth general president of the Relief Society of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) from 1940 to 1945. Lyman also served a term as a member of the 14th Utah State Legislature from 1923 to 1924.

Early life Amy Cassandra Brown was born in Pleasant Grove, Utah Territory on February 7, 1872, to John Brown and Margaret Zimmerman Brown. John Brown was a polygamist, and Amy Brown was the twenty-third of his twenty-five children. He was also a leader of the Mississippi Latter-day Saints, a group of pioneers who traveled to Utah.

Amy Brown attended high school at Brigham Young Academy (BYA) from 1888 to 1890. For part of her time at BYA, Brown lived in the home of Karl G. and Anna Meith Maeser.

Marriage

At BYA she met Richard Lyman, her future husband who would become an LDS Church apostle in 1918. Brown and Lyman's plans to marry were postponed because the University of Michigan, where Lyman was studying, did not allow married students. the couple was married in the Salt Lake Temple in a ceremony performed by Joseph F. Smith. The couple had two children, Wendell Brown and Margaret. She became involved in Settlement House programs and associated with Jane Addams. In Europe, Lyman presided over women's organizations.

Lyman received numerous honors including election to the Social Science Honor Society of America, the Distinguished Alumnus Award from Brigham Young University (BYU), honorary membership in the American Association of Mental Deficiency, and the Honorary Life Membership Award from the Utah State Conference of Social Work.

In 1943, the First Presidency discovered that Richard Lyman had carried on a relationship with another woman since 1925, for which he was excommunicated on November 12, 1943, for violations of the law of chastity. Lyman was "devastated" and "crushed" by the news,

When Amy returned to work at the Relief Society, a week after the news broke, David O. McKay, second counselor in the First Presidency, "escorted her to the Relief Society offices so that her return after the excommunication of her husband would not be so difficult." McKay had urged her to perform her duties "in order to get her mind off her troubles."

Social welfare department Part of Lyman's work in the Relief Society included her contributions to the LDS Church's social welfare department. Lyman studied at the University of Colorado and earned a certificate in social service.

As head of the Social Service Department, Lyman created a training program in which stake delegates attended classes in family welfare work. They would then return to their stakes to teach these lessons to the members of the church. The Sheppard–Towner Act was one of the most significant achievements of Progressive Era maternalist reformers.

Other contributions Throughout her life, Lyman was involved with the American Red Cross.