Louie B. Felt

Sarah Louise "Louie" Bouton Felt (May 5, 1850 – February 13, 1928) was the first general president of the children's Primary organization of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) between 1880 and 1925. She was the General Primary president for longer than any other president. They succeeded in 1866, and on the journey to Utah, Louise met Joseph H. Felt in Omaha. Because Joseph Bouton was ill, he and his family stayed in Omaha for six weeks. During that time Joseph Felt courted Louise, and they were married in Salt Lake City on December 24, 1866. Joseph Felt was the eldest son of Nathaniel H. Felt.

Married life and sister wives Brigham Young sent Felt and her husband to Muddy River in 1867, along with nine other young couples. They made their own adobe home, but due to severe weather and the remoteness of the area, they returned to Salt Lake City in 1869. In 1872, Felt used her inheritance to buy a house there. In the Salt Lake 11th Ward, Felt befriended Lillie Tuckett Freeze. Felt's sister wife Elizabeth Mineer went into hiding, and Felt often arranged for Elizabeth to visit her children for a day, driving a disguised Elizabeth to their home in a cart in the middle of the night. At Felt's funeral she was described as being "devoted to her husband and to his children. She was a good house-keeper, a real home-maker. Her devotion to her husband was the kind that helped him to stand by his ideals of right."

Service in the Primary Association Eliza R. Snow, Presendia Kimball and Zina Young asked Felt to be the first general president of the Primary in May 1880. She was officially appointed at the June 1880 jubilee celebration at a meeting of the associations presided over by Eliza R. Snow, which at the time included the Primary and young women's organization as well as the Relief Society. After Snow's death in 1887, Felt took a more active role in leading the Primary.

The First Presidency denied the Primary general presidency's petition to publish a journal on grounds that it would be too expensive. Felt asked William A. Morton, a children's book writer, to publish several issues of The Primary Helper, but it only lasted for a few issues. In 1901 Joseph F. Smith approved a Primary publication as long as it avoided debt and the Primary board managed its publication. Felt borrowed money to publish the first issues, putting her home up for collateral. On October 6, 1925, Felt stepped down as general president of the Primary due to failing health. Her first counselor and close friend May Anderson succeeded her. Felt died in Salt Lake City of a cerebral hemorrhage.

Same-sex relationships Louise Felt (right), and fellow church leader May Anderson (left), who were dedicated friends and companions. Anderson served on the Primary Board with Felt was her caregiver during times of ill health. Felt had strong friendships with other women, especially her sister wives and the women she served with in the Primary leadership. D. Michael Quinn explained in his book on Mormon same-sex dynamics that same-sex Mormon friends often walked arm-in-arm, danced together, and kissed each other, as was accepted in 19th-century American culture.

In 1883, Felt met May Anderson, and their friendship soon "ripened into love", according to an anonymous biographical sketch of Anderson in The Children's Friend. The same sketch described their new relationship as devoted, stating "there never were more ardent lovers than these two." Though acknowledging a lack of direct proof, Quinn and O'Donovan speculate that Felt and Anderson could have been romantic partners. At the FARMS Review of Books, George L. Mitton and Rhett S. James argue that Quinn inaccurately classifies Felt's relationships with other women as romantic. Mitton and James argue that the actual living arrangements of Joseph Felt are difficult to verify because after the 1890 Manifesto polygamous families often sought to obscure their living arrangements. After Joseph's death in 1907, Felt and Anderson continued to live together, sleeping in the same bedroom until a few years before Felt was released as Primary president in 1925, when Anderson moved out. They were referred to by others as the "David and Jonathan of the Primary", a term they embraced. According to Mitton and James, David and Jonathan's relationship in the Bible was not interpreted as a sexual relationship by the LDS Church, but as one of fraternal love.