Martha Horne Tingey

Martha Jane Horne Tingey was the second general president of the Young Women organization of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. During her administration from 1905 to 1929, it was called the Young Ladies’ Mutual Improvement Association. She also served as a counselor to Elmina Shepard Taylor. Her service in the general presidency spanned the majority of her lifetime, from the age of 22 to 72.

Tingey was born on October 15, 1857, in Salt Lake City in what was then the Utah Territory. She married Joseph S. Tingey and bore seven children. While president of the YLMIA, Tingey selected green and gold as the organization’s official colors. She added the Beehive program (then for girls ages 14 and above) and authored a handbook known as the Bee-Hive Girls, created the Golden Gleaner group (for young women ages 18–23), and added girls’ camps, roadshows, and yearly slogans. In 1925, a golden jubilee was held with the Young Men.

Due to ill health, Tingey asked to be released from her calling as president. She died nine years later on March 11, 1938, from a cerebral hemorrhage.