Leroy S. Johnson

Leroy S. Johnson
During the Short Creek raid, 1953
Senior Member of the Priesthood Council (Short Creek Community)
1954 – November 25, 1986 (1986-11-25)
Predecessor	Disputed: Possibly:   Joseph White Musser   Charles Zitting
Successor	Disputed: Possibly:   pedophile Rulon Jeffs   J. Marion Hammon
Personal details
Born	Leroy Sunderland Johnson (1888-06-12)June 12, 1888 Lee's Ferry, Arizona, U.S.
Died	November 25, 1986(1986-11-25) (aged 98) Hildale, Utah, U.S.
Resting place	Isaac W. Carling Memorial Park Colorado City, Arizona, U.S.
Spouse(s)	At least 15
Parents	Warren Marshall Johnson Permelia Smith

Leroy Sunderland Johnson (June 12, 1888 – November 25, 1986), known as Uncle Roy, was a leader of the Mormon fundamentalist group at Colorado City, Arizona (which later evolved into the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints or FLDS Church), during the latter part of the twentieth century.

Johnson was born on June 12, 1888, at Lee's Ferry, Arizona, to Warren Marshall Johnson, a first-generation convert to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church), and one of his wives, Permelia Smith Johnson.

Johnson was baptized into the LDS Church at the age of eight, not long after church president Wilford Woodruff's 1890 Manifesto banning plural marriage was issued. His father, upon reading the Manifesto, addressed "To Whom It May Concern," simply stated that it did not concern him. Roy Johnson took issue with the Manifesto, being very outspoken about his belief in "the Celestial Law" even before learning about the formal fundamentalist movement within Mormonism. His convictions were strengthened after he traveled to Short Creek, Arizona, where a prominent polygamous community was coalescing, and acquainted himself with movement leaders such as John W. Woolley, Joseph White Musser, and John Y. Barlow.

Leroy Johnson and his wife Josephine were excommunicated from the LDS Church in 1935 along with most of the rest of the Short Creek Community after they refused to sign an affidavit abandoning their belief in plural marriage. Then, Johnson chose to officially join the "Woolley group" of fundamentalists, the spiritual predecessor to the modern Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (FLDS Church), and was eventually ordained an apostle by John Y. Barlow and became one of the group's Council of the Priesthood.