Joseph Jenne Cannon was a Utah

Utah

Utah is a state in the Western United States. It was the 45th state to join the Union, on January 4, 1896. Approximately 80% of Utah's 2,763,885 people live along the Wasatch Front, centering on Salt Lake City. This leaves vast expanses of the state nearly uninhabited, making the population the...

 politician and newspaper editor and was a leader in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church). He was a member of the prominent Cannon political family

Cannon Family

The Cannon family is a prominent U.S. political family in the states of Utah, Nevada and Idaho which descends from the 19th century marriage of George Cannon and Ann Quayle before their emigration from Peel, Isle of Man. The family's most notable member was their oldest son George Q. Cannon...

.

Biography

As a young man, Cannon served as a missionary

Mormon missionary

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is one of the most active modern practitioners of missionary work, with over 52,000 full-time missionaries worldwide, as of the end of 2010...

 for the LDS Church in Europe

Europe

Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...

. He accompanied LDS Church apostle Francis M. Lyman

Francis M. Lyman

Francis Marion Lyman was a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints . He was the President of the Quorum from 1903 until his death....

 in offering prayers in St. Petersburg and Moscow

Moscow

Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...

 which dedicated Russia

Russia

Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...

 for the preaching of Mormonism

Mormonism

Mormonism is the religion practiced by Mormons, and is the predominant religious tradition of the Latter Day Saint movement. This movement was founded by Joseph Smith, Jr. beginning in the 1820s as a form of Christian primitivism. During the 1830s and 1840s, Mormonism gradually distinguished itself...

 in August 1903. Lyman and Cannon also similarly dedicated Finland

Finland

Finland , officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country situated in the Fennoscandian region of Northern Europe. It is bordered by Sweden in the west, Norway in the north and Russia in the east, while Estonia lies to its south across the Gulf of Finland.Around 5.4 million people reside...

 in 1903.

In the 1908 election, Cannon was elected as a member of the Utah House of Representatives

Utah House of Representatives

The Utah House of Representatives is the lower house of the Utah State Legislature, the state legislature of the U.S. state of Utah. The House is composed of 75 representatives elected from single member constituent districts. Each district contains an average population of 35,000 people...

 from Salt Lake County. He served one term, from 1909 to 1911. Cannon was not formally associated with any political party.

From 1931 to 1934, Cannon was the editor of the Deseret News, a Salt Lake City newspaper owned by the LDS Church. His tenure ended when the LDS Church asked him to become the president

Mission president

Mission president is a priesthood leadership position in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints . A mission president presides over a mission and the missionaries serving in the mission...

 of the church's British Mission

Mission (LDS Church)

A mission of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is a geographical administrative area to which church missionaries are assigned. Almost all areas of the world are within the boundaries of an LDS Church mission, whether or not Mormon missionaries live or proselytize in the area...

. Cannon served in this capacity for three years, until 1937.

Immediately following his return to Utah, Cannon was asked to become the first assistant to George Q. Morris

George Q. Morris

George Quayle Morris was a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from 1954 until his death....

, the general superintendent of the church's Young Men's Mutual Improvement Association. Cannon served in this capacity until his death from pancreatic cancer

Pancreatic cancer

Pancreatic cancer refers to a malignant neoplasm of the pancreas. The most common type of pancreatic cancer, accounting for 95% of these tumors is adenocarcinoma, which arises within the exocrine component of the pancreas. A minority arises from the islet cells and is classified as a...

in 1945.