After a faith-filled life defined by dedication, service and testimony, Sister Patricia Terry Holland — the wife of Elder Jeffrey R. Holland of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles — died Thursday, July 20, at the age of 81.
A former general officer in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Sister Holland — the mother of three, grandmother of 13 and great-grandmother of 5 — will be remembered for her constant support of her husband and their efforts to share love and light in nations across the world.
Born Feb. 16, 1942, in Enterprise, Utah, to Maeser W. and Marilla Terry, Sister Holland embodied the faith and legacy of her pioneer ancestors.
That faith carried her from the isolated farming community of her youth to marriage and motherhood, general Church leadership and the visibility of her husband’s callings and — in recent years — through illness that illustrated her tenacity and character.
When Sister Holland was 16 years old, her parents moved to St. George so their only daughter would have someone to date. She met Jeffrey Holland. “He was smart. He was a wonderful student,” she said. “He knew how to make friends. He had this just wonderful ability to make people feel good.”
After attending Dixie College, supporting Elder Holland in his missionary service, and studying piano and voice with a faculty member of Juilliard School of Music in New York City, she married her high school sweetheart on June 7, 1963, in the St. George Utah Temple.
Read more about Sister Holland's life.