Janath R. Cannon

Who was Janath R. Cannon?

Janath Russell Cannon was a counselor to Barbara B. Smith in the general presidency of the Relief Society of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Cannon was also a prominent missionary in the church and was among the first to preach to black people in Africa.

Born in Ogden, Utah, Janath Russell was educated at Wellesley College. In 1941, she married Edwin Q. Cannon in the Salt Lake Temple.

From 1971 to 1974, Cannon and her husband were heads of the Switzerland Mission of the LDS Church. Upon their return to Utah in 1974, Cannon became the first counselor to Barbara B. Smith in the general presidency of the church's Relief Society. Cannon served in this capacity until 1978, when she was released so that she and her husband could become the first missionaries of the church to preach in "black Africa". They — along with Rendell and Rachel Mabey — preached in Nigeria and Ghana, baptized hundreds of converts, and established 27 branches of the LDS Church in Nigeria and Ghana. The first convert baptized in Nigeria was Anthony Obinna.

In the late 1980s, Cannon and her husband were the directors of the LDS Church's visitors' center in Nauvoo, Illinois.