Kate Holbrook, the managing historian of women’s history in the Church History Department (CHD) of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) has passed away.
Kate Holbrook died on August 20, 2022 according to report. However, details regarding her cause of death is still unknown.
Holbrook was born in Santa Barbara, California and her father left six weeks after she was born. Her mother later moved to Utah and Holbrook attended schools in Provo, Utah.
Holbrook was married to the physician, medical researcher, and religious historian Samuel Brown; they have three daughters. She served as an LDS Church missionary from 1993 to 1994 in Samara, Russia. She died in Salt Lake City, Utah in August 2022.
When she was hired by the CHD in 2011, Holbrook became the first historian hired to specialize on women’s history. Historians Jennifer Reeder and Brittany Chapman Nash were later hired to join the research team. During her time in the CHD, the LDS Church has seen the role of women expand and evolve. This includes prayers offered by women in the church’s general conferences, leadership assignments on executive councils, and writings about Heavenly Mother. Holbrook was a collaborator on The First Fifty Years of Relief Society, a collection of original documents that explores nineteenth-century history of the Relief Society—the women’s organization of the LDS Church. Along with Matthew Bowman, she also edited Women and Mormonism, a collection of primary documents and oral histories exploring perspectives of Latter-day Saint women.
In 2017, At the Pulpit: 185 Years of Discourses by Latter-Day Saint Women was published (co-edited by Jennifer Reeder) to document public prayers and preachings of 54 women—including biographical information and the context of the material.
