Graham W. and Mary
Doxey
1973 – 1976
Kansas Missouri
Missouri Independence
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Graham
W. (Watson) Doxey
Born 1927
Graham W. Doxey served as President of
the Kansas, Missouri Mission.
He was the first Mission
President of the New Missouri Independence
Mission.
He served 1973-1976.
Article about Graham W. Doxey in the Saturday, April 27, 1991 LDS Church
News
Saturday, April 27, 1991
LDS Church News
LIKE NEPHI, HE WALKS BY
SIMPLE FAITH
BY GERRY AVANT, Church News Assistant
Editor
For years, Graham W. Doxey has relied on favorite stories from the scriptures
to teach, inspire and motivate others, and to find courage for himself.
``One story that has been a great help to us in the
past few years has been the one of Nephi where he, with his brothers, was
assigned to get the plates from Laban,'' said Elder Doxey, 64, who, exudes a
peaceful, happy countenance. ``They made the first effort and were
unsuccessful. They were unsuccessful the second time. Nephi finally got his
brothers to go back with him to the city, but they were so cowed with fear that
he told them to stay outside the city while he went in alone. They couldn't
imagine how they possibly could get those plates. They had lost their gold;
they had nothing with which to bargain.``But even in the face of that, Nephi
was not dissuaded. He went. It was at night, as he said, ` . . . not knowing
beforehand the things which I should do. Nevertheless I went forth. . . . ' (1
Ne. 4:6-7.)
``Nephi took a step. He didn't have knowledge. He went
on blind faith, stepping into the darkness beyond the light.''
And that, declared Elder Doxey,
is an apt description of how he is approaching his call to the Second Quorum of
the Seventy, to which he was sustained April 6. ``Sometimes we just have to go
on simple faith and take a step,'' he said.
His parents helped set examples for such steps of
faith. His father, Graham H. Doxey,
presided over what was then the East Central States Mission from 1943-46. His
mother, Leone Watson Doxey, now 91, served as a counselor
to LaVern Watts Parmley in the Primary general presidency. Elder Doxey's
father died 21 years ago.
The younger Graham Doxey, who is
known to family and close friends as ``Bud,'' was 16 when the family moved from
Salt Lake City to Louisville, Ky., then the mission's headquarters.
Years later, in 1973, he and his wife had an
opportunity to be a ``mission family'' when President Harold B. Lee called him
to preside over the Kansas-Missouri Mission, which a short time later became
the Missouri Independence Mission. ``We
enjoyed three years in the mission,'' Elder Doxey said.
``We had our 12th child born to us in Jackson County; we had two married at
that time, and the others were with us in the mission. It really was a family
experience for us. It welded us together.''
For Elder Doxey, the
realization of the importance of families began in early childhood. ``My
grandfather, Tom Graham Doxey, was born in
England,'' he related. ``His mother died and his father was away at sea. His
grandmother brought him to America when he was 14, about the time they joined
the Church. He lived with a roommate in a dinky little room. He told me that
when he was a young boy, he hungered for a family.''
When the time came for Graham W.
to leave the family circle, he gained a greater understanding of the loneliness
his grandfather must have felt in his youth. After he graduated from high
school in Louisville while his father was mission president, he joined the Navy
and was assigned with the American forces sent to northern China to transport
Japanese soldiers out of China after World War II.
``There I was in northern China, lonely and homesick,''
said Elder Doxey. ``I was the only
LDS boy in our unit.'' The slim, 6-foot-tall young man with blond hair and blue
eyes, through that experience in China, gained a brief glimpse of the
loneliness his grandfather must have felt.
Out of that experience, however, came an incident that
demonstrated to him that family love can narrow the distance across thousands
of miles. He and about 12 other sailors got on the wrong train while returning
from leave in a city about 40 miles from their base. When they discovered their
error, they got off the train in a desolate area, which he described as looking
much like Utah's Salt Flats. They started walking back toward the base.
They found a hand-pump cart beside the railroad, which
which they put on the tracks. They got off and pushed it up inclines and jumped
on to ride down hills. ``One time, it started to gain momentum as it went down
hill,'' Elder Doxey
recalled. ``Everybody jumped on. I was running alongside looking for a place to
jump on. The only place left was in front, between the tracks, right in the
center. I thought it wasn't very wise to try to get on there, but that was all
there was left.
``I thought about my mother. All the years of my life,
as I went out the door, she would say, `Now, Bud, you be careful.' I could hear
the squeaking screen door close as she was saying that.
``That went through my mind. I thought, `This isn't
being careful,' but I had to jump on or be left behind. I ran between the
tracks, jumped on the cart and perched there for a few minutes. Then I fell
between the tracks in front of the cart. My right foot got caught in the gears
underneath and locked the wheels. It was a foolish thing to have done. My boot
was cut and my foot was cut a bit. It could have been serious; I could have
lost my life.
``My next letter from Mother and Dad asked, `Has
something happened?' I wrote and said I had a little accident but it wasn't
serious. It turned out that at the very moment I was thinking of my mother, she
and my father were on a mission tour. It was about 2 in the morning where they
were. She sat straight up in bed, shook my father and said, `Bud's in trouble.'
They got out of bed and knelt beside it and prayed that whatever trouble I was
in, that I would be preserved. We determined it was at the exact moment I was
having that experience with the rail cart. That's always been a sweet
experience and lesson.''
After he returned from the Navy, he attended the
University of Utah for a year before he was called to serve in the mission over
which his father had recently presided. The day after his mission began,
however, the mission was divided. He was assigned to the new Central Atlantic
States Mission, where he served two years in Virginia and North Carolina.
While on his mission, he and Mary Lou Young, with whom
he became acquainted before his mission, wrote to each other. They were married
in the Salt Lake Temple on June 22, 1950, by Elder Spencer W.
Kimball, a friend of the Doxey and
Young families.
Elder Doxey
graduated from the University of Utah in 1952 with a degree in business and
returned a year for graduate work.
He then went to work for the Doxey-Layton
Realty Co., a company begun in Salt Lake City in 1923 by his father and Howard
J. Layton, a carpenter and contractor.
Sister Doxey received a bachelor's degree and was
certified to teach elementary school. However, she had other plans for how she
would spend her time and talents.
She said, ``I always wanted a large family. When I was
growing up, I heard my father say many times, `There's nothing that will bring
you greater joy than having a large family.' I grew up saying, `I'm going to
have 12 children.' And I did.''
Elder Doxey
said, ``I thought four would be nice; we could fit them all in the same car.
But Mary Lou's ambition was to have a larger family. That takes a lot of
selflessness. She has never had any concerns for the material things she could
have wanted; she just wanted what her family desired and needed. Observing her
has been a marvelous inspiration. She has focused on the important things in
life.''
One of the important things, according to Elder Doxey, is doing one's best in
life. He recalled an early childhood experience that lessened his self-esteem
but quickened his caution to never offend or hurt others through thoughtless
words or actions. ``I overheard one of my elementary school teachers tell my
mother that I would never amount to anything,'' he said. ``The teacher said I
would never get through high school. She told my mother, `If he can just get a
job sweeping a floor some place, let him do it. That's the best he will do.'
``My parents knew I heard the teacher's comments. My
father told me, `You can do anything. Don't hold back. You've got all these
capabilities.'
``I guess I worked hard so I would not disappoint my
parents,'' Elder Doxey said.
``They were supportive, but they didn't drill that their children had to have
straight-A's to succeed. And I think that's been our attitude toward our
children. They were good students, but my wife and I tried to teach them that
grades and paychecks are not the only measures of success.''
*****
·
Family:
Born March 30, 1927, in Salt Lake City to Graham H. and Leone Watson Doxey.
Salt Lake City, Utah.
· Baptized as a child
·
Mission to Central Atlantic
States
·
Married Mary Lou
Young June 22, 1950, in the Salt Lake Temple.
·
Parents of 12
children, they have 54 grandchildren.
·
Education:
Attended the University of Louisville one year; graduated from the University
of Utah, 1952; attended graduate school, 1953.
·
Military: U.S.
Navy, 1945-46.
·
Employment:
President of Doxey-Layton
Co., a real estate management firm.
·
Church service:
o Bishop
o Stake President
o
o Mission President, 1973-76 – Missouri Independence
Mission.
o Counselor in the Young Men general presidency,
1977-79.
- Second Quorum of Seventy 1991-1996
The following biographical sketch is adapted from the "News of the Church: Elder Graham W. Doxey of the Seventy" published in the Ensign for May 1991 on the occasion of Elder Doxey's call to the Second Quorum of the Seventy.
===============================
Graham W. Doxey’s grandfather joined the Church in England and migrated to Utah. Alone for most of his growing-up years, he determined to make his family a top priority. Two generations later, Elder Doxey has inherited that determination.
“Family is really the only association that is eternal,” explains Elder Doxey, newly called to the Second Quorum of the Seventy. “Other relationships in life come and go, so why not concentrate on the one unit that is going to endure?”
That commitment to family is shared by Elder Doxey’s wife, Mary Lou Young Doxey, whose lifelong dream to have a dozen children was fulfilled in 1974 when Mary Kim was born. At the time, Brother Doxey was taking a three-year break from working in the real estate management firm he owns with his two brothers to serve as mission president in the Missouri Independence Mission.
Besides Mary, the others of the Doxey dozen are Diane (Jones), Carol (Richards), Marilee (Page), Graham, Robert, Lisa (Patch), Scott, Meg (Boud), Amy, who died as an infant, Becky (Schettler), and Sarah.
The Doxeys have always enjoyed traveling together and look back on their three years in Missouri as wonderful bonding years. Recently, adult members of the family have also enjoyed three-day “family conferences.”
“If it’s good for the Church to have conferences, it ought to be good for us,” Elder Doxey says. The Doxey conferences have convened in Missouri, Illinois, and Utah.
But those conferences are only an extension of a tradition begun years ago. Sunday afternoons were often devoted to family teaching sessions when Brother Doxey would gather the children around the dinner table or on a blanket outside under the trees.
“He would teach them, using the scriptures or a story, about an eternal principle or perspective,” recalls Sister Doxey. “His great love is teaching the children to appreciate the gospel and the world around them.”
Elder Doxey learned to appreciate those things while growing up in Salt Lake City. Born 30 March 1927, Graham was the second child of Graham H. and Leone Watson Doxey. When Graham was sixteen, the Doxey family moved to Louisville, Kentucky, where his father served as mission president. After graduating from high school and spending a year at the University of Louisville and an eighteen-month stint in the navy, Graham returned to Salt Lake City.
On his first Sunday home, he noticed his future wife. Although they had grown up in the same ward, she was three years younger than he was. “I’d never paid attention to her before,” Elder Doxey notes. The two went on only a few dates before Graham left to serve in the Central Atlantic States Mission.
However, during the next two years, the couple corresponded frequently. They were married in the Salt Lake Temple on 22 June 1950 and settled in the Salt Lake Valley.
It was on his mission that Brother Doxey first read the Book of Mormon completely. “I’ll never forget how I felt as I was sitting up in bed reading one night,” he recalls. “I wasn’t anywhere near Moroni’s promise in my reading, but its truthfulness settled over me like a blanket. I tingled with the excitement.
“When I came home from my mission, I knew the gospel was true because I thought I could prove it through the scriptures,” he continues. “But after a while, the gospel wasn’t only true because of the scriptures; it was true because I could see it working in the lives of people.”
Service in the Church has been a big part of Elder Doxey’s life. In addition to being a mission president, he has served as a bishop, a stake president, a temple sealer, and a counselor in the Young Men General Presidency.
“Every opportunity to serve in the Church just helps you refine your testimony. I know the Lord lives, and it will be a wonderful thrill to bear that testimony to people of the world,” he says.
“This new opportunity is overwhelming and humbling, but I keep thinking of newborn lambs or foals trying to get their feet under them. I’m trying to get my feet under me. But I’ll do it and give the Lord all that I have.”
================================
Elder Doxey fulfilled his five-year call to the Second Quorum of the Seventy
and was honorably released on October 5, 1996.