Be Still My Son

Be Still, My Son is the true story of a boy born into a typical Latter-day Saint family in the heart of Utah. In his youth, he enjoyed the blessings of living the gospel until his father became disaffected with the Church and sought polygamy as an alternative.

This story depicts the heart-wrenching emotions the boy experienced as he watched his family leave the Church for an austere fundamentalist lifestyle. He spent long, hot summers in the polygamist community of Short Creek, Arizona.

During the school year, he had to hide his true identity for fear that his family's underground lifestyle would be found out. When he turned sixteen, he escaped and entered an unknown world full of challenges. He relates how the Lord carefully guided him back to the Church with the promise that [life would be filled with constant rewards.] A series of life-altering events taught him that we all must [learn to wait on the Lord and trust him.] This is a powerful story of one man's journey to elusive happiness.

David LaMar Beagley was born in 1944 in Provo, Utah, to Jesse and Althea Beagley. He was the tenth of twelve children. At age sixteen he ran away from his polygamist home in Utah and joined the LDS Church in Flagstaff, Arizona.

He married Roberta Boyd in the Salt Lake Temple on May 27, 1966. They are the parents of six children and have nineteen grandchildren. He graduated from Southern Utah State University in 1970 and moved to Idaho Falls, Idaho to begin his twenty-year career in the Seminary Department of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He taught in Cedar City, American Fork, Pleasant Grove, and Idaho Falls.