Edna Harker Thomas

Edna Harker Thomas (April 11, 1881 – April 29, 1942) was a leader in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church). She was the first wife of Elbert D. Thomas, a United States senator from Utah. She was also the first woman in the LDS Church to travel around the world. Harker studied at Brigham Young University, University of California, Berkeley and at the American University. She attended the University of Utah, where she taught physical education after graduating. The Truth called her "the University Bernhart."

Career She was a teacher in the public schools of Salt Lake City. In 1904, she became a member of the general board of the Primary Association of the LDS Church.

Shortly after their marriage, Elbert and Edna Thomas were sent by the LDS Church to Japan as full-time missionaries. She would also later give lectures about Japan. After completing the Japanese mission, she and her husband traveled through Korea, China, southern Asia, northern Africa and into Europe before returning to Salt Lake City in 1913. She served in this capacity until 1933, when she was released as a counselor and as a member of the Primary Association's general board to allow her to move to Washington, D.C., with her husband, who had defeated Reed Smoot in the 1932 election to be the United States Senator for Utah.

In 1934, the Senator and Mrs. Thomas traveled in Nazi Germany for ten weeks on a fact-finding mission sponsored by an Oberlander fellowship given to the Senator by the University of Utah. Thomas kept a diary of their trip in which she wrote, "We are doing just what President Roosevelt asked us to do, meet and talk with the educated people."

Personal life In 1907, she married Elbert D. Thomas in the Salt Lake Temple. She was the mother of three daughters, the eldest of whom was born in Japan. She was buried at Salt Lake City Cemetery.