Church News: President Russell M. Nelson dies at 101
After a most extraordinary life of service, leadership, consecration, innovation and love, President Russell M. Nelson — President and Prophet of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and a world-renowned heart surgeon — died Saturday, Sept. 27, 2025, in Salt Lake City. He was 101.
“I have learned that the most crucial question we each must answer is this: To whom or to what will I give my life?” said President Nelson, speaking during October 2024 general conference just weeks after his 100th birthday. “My decision to follow Jesus Christ is the most important decision I have ever made.”
President Nelson’s beloved wife, Sister Wendy Nelson, was with him when he died. His counselors in the First Presidency, President Dallin H. Oaks and President Henry B. Eyring, visited him in his final days as did each of his living children and their spouses.
Russell Marion Nelson was born in Salt Lake City, Utah, on Sept. 9, 1924 — the second of Marion C. and Edna Anderson Nelson’s four children. He married Dantzel White in the Salt Lake Temple on Aug. 31, 1945; they are the parents of nine daughters and one son. After her unexpected death in 2005, he married Wendy L. Watson on April 6, 2006.