Eliza Roxcy Snow (21 January 1804 – 5 December 1887) was one of the most influential women in Latter-day Saint history—poet, theologian, leader, and “Zion’s Poetess,” a title bestowed by Joseph Smith Jr. Born in Becket, Massachusetts, she grew up in a family that valued learning and began publishing poetry in Ohio newspapers by age 22.
Snow’s talent for verse produced over 500 poems during her lifetime, ten of which remain in the current LDS hymnal. Her most celebrated work, “O My Father” (originally titled “Invocation, or the Eternal Father and Mother”), introduced into Latter-day Saint devotional practice the doctrine of a Heavenly Mother. Written shortly after her father’s death and Joseph Smith’s martyrdom, it remains one of the most theologically significant hymns in the tradition.
She served as secretary when Joseph Smith organized the first Relief Society in Nauvoo in 1842, then reestablished and led the organization in Utah, serving as general president from 1866 to 1887. Beyond the Relief Society, she organized the Young Ladies’ Mutual Improvement Association, the children’s Primary Association, and the Woman’s Commission Store. She served as president of the Deseret Hospital Association and was a powerful advocate for women’s participation in civic life and religious freedom.
The older sister of Lorenzo Snow, fifth President of the Church, Eliza R. Snow was both a wife of Joseph Smith and later of Brigham Young. She died in 1887 at age 84, remembered as the “first lady of Mormon letters” and a pioneering advocate for women’s empowerment in nineteenthcentury America.