L. Lionel Kendrick
L. Lionel Kendrick is an emeritus General Authority of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He was sustained a member of the First Quorum of the Seventy on April 2, 1988, and served in that quorum until the creation of the Second Quorum of the Seventy in 1989. He again became a member of the First Quorum in 1991 until he became an emeritus General Authority in 2001. While serving as a General Authority Seventy, he served for one year as the second counselor in the general presidency of the Young Men organization.
Kendrick was born on September 19, 1931, in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. He was an active Protestant in his youth and young adulthood. In 1952 he married Myrtis Lee Noble, a member of the Church of Jesus Christ. While at a United States Air Force officers training school in Belleville, Illinois, Kendrick converted to the LDS Church—he had been attending his wife’s sacrament services since their marriage. The Air Force sent him to Nagoya, Japan, one month after his baptism, where he served for sixteen months.
While he and his family lived in Baton Rouge, Kendrick earned a bachelor’s degree in health and physical education and taught high school before entering the military. He returned to teaching high school and coached the basketball and football teams. He also pursued a graduate degree. After earning his EdD degree from Louisiana State University, he taught at East Carolina University in Greenville, North Carolina. In 1970, he became director of the ECU regional training center.
He has served in the Church as a branch president, stake president, and regional representative. He presided over the Florida Tampa Mission from 1985 to 1988 and as president of the Dallas Texas Temple from 1993 to 1995. He and his wife are the parents of four children.
