Zola Brown was the first wife of Rulon Jeffs, the president, and the prophet of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints based in Colorado City, Arizona. She divorced him once he proposed the idea of maintaining a plural wife. As for Rulon, he had 75 wives at the time of his death.
Below you’ll learn about her kids, her age, and her marriages. Keep reading to learn more about Rulon Jeffs’s first wife.
Meet Zola Brown, Rulon Jeffs First Wife
Rulon Jeffs married his first wife Zola Brown on 1 June 1934.
Salt Lake Tribune, did an article in June 1998. Their marital dispute made its way to the court and the court record stated that “the young Mormon couple had been fighting over something she dreaded: his desire to marry another wife and join the ranks of the polygamists”.
According to the article, Rulon had told her he had taken a trip to the mountains and had a vision of the woman God wanted him to marry. It was a girl who worked at a store in Provo. Zola told her husband she feared he no longer loved her, that he had become cold and indifferent. He responded by telling her that if she did not embrace polygamy and accept the other wife, things could never be the same between them again.
Meanwhile, Zola became “so worried and upset that she cried almost day and night, that her milk dried up so she was no longer able to nurse her baby,” according to court records of their 1941 divorce.
Later in April 1941, Zola divorced him because he insisted on taking a plural wife. Two weeks after the divorce, Rulon was excommunicated from the LDS church on April 14, 1941.
Long after his place among the leadership of the FLDS Church was secure, Jeffs looked back on his broken marriage with Zola. “I knew I had to go forward and do whatever the Lord required of me,” he said in a 1973 sermon. “The Lord has multiplied and blessed me a hundredfold, for which I am grateful.”
Zola Brown Second Husband
Zola Brown then married her second husband Waldo Gee Hudson, four years after divorcing Rulon. When she and Waldo were married they moved to Southern California and lived there for almost 30 years. There they raised three sons and a daughter. Upon Waldo’s retirement, they moved to Salt Lake City and purchased the “family home” in the Garden Park Ward, and lived there for 30 years.
According to his Findagrave, Waldo was born on 12 January 1910 and died on 1 April 2002 at 92 in Salt Lake City, Utah.
One grandchild of Zola shared on a forum that Zola and Waldo lived apart from each other most of their retirement time. She added that whoever knew Zola and Waldo knew that they didn’t get along. The person added, “In fact, she confided in my father shortly before her death (and he told me) that she was extremely sad that she hadn’t found an “eternal companion” before she was going to die”.
The person claiming to be grandchildren added further, “She wasn’t a strong woman. She left Rulon because he was taking another wife and not to leave a cult. She relied on her father completely to do it. And he had to talk her into it. It wasn’t much of talking into”.
The person also said, “She couldn’t be the socialite she was used to being with Rulon anymore. He had found “The Truth” from his polygamist kin. Rulon didn’t put up any fight. It was obvious if you had known Zola that she would never ever have been complicit with polygamy or worn a prairie dress. She was always stylish according to my mother”.
Zola Brown Kids
According to her obituary, Zola Brown’s kids are Richard (Connie), Daniel B. Jeffs (Wilma), L. James (Gaylene), and Marie (Richard) Sampson.
After her divorce from Rulon with whom she had two sons, Zola took the couple’s two young sons to Pasadena, Calif. “I respect him for who he is and for the integrity he has for following his beliefs, but his ways are different from my ways,” said one of those sons, Dick Hodson, a devout Mormon who lives in Orem. “Our paths have separated”.
Is Zola Brown Still Alive?
No, Zola Brown passed away on 3 May 2005 at the age of 94.
Does Zola Brown Appear On Netflix’s Keep Sweet: Pray and Obey?
No, Zola Brown doesn’t appear on Netflix’s Keep Sweet: Pray and Obey. However, she is mentioned on the show.
Related FAQs
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Where Was Zola Brown Born?
Zola Brown was born in Cardston, Claresholm Census Division, Alberta, Canada.
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Who Were Zola Brown’s Parents And Siblings?
Zola was born in Cardston, Alberta, Canada to Zina Young Card and Hugh Brown Brown. Her father was the later LDS Apostle and the second of eight children born to her parents. She lived in Canada until the age of 16 when her family moved to Salt Lake City. She attended BYU and completed a course at Quish Beauty College.
Her seven siblings were; Zina Lydia Brown, LaJune Brown Hay, Mary Myrtice Brown, Hugh Card Brown, Charles Manley Brown, Margaret Alberta Brown, and Carol Rae Brown, the youngest among the eight who passed away in 2017.
