Uldine Mabelle Utley (March 16, 1912 – October 31, 1995) was an American

Pentecostal Pentecostalism or classical Pentecostalism is a movement within the broader Evangelical wing of Protestantism, Protestant Christianity that emphasizes direct personal experience of God in Christianity, God through Baptism with the Holy Spirit#Cl ...

child preacher In some branches of Christianity, especially American pentecostalism, children are occasionally preachers, or even ordained ministers. The heyday of child preachers was in the 1920s and 1930s, but a number of videos of modern-day child preachers c ...

Early life

Utley was born in

Durant, Oklahoma Durant () is a city in Bryan County, Oklahoma, United States. The population was 18,589 in the 2020 census. It serves as the capital of the Choctaw Nation, and is the largest settlement on the reservation, ranking ahead of McAlester and Po ...

, the daughter of Azle Herbert Utley and Hattie Ellen Bray Utley. Her father was an electrician, and a farmer and postmaster while the family lived in Colorado.

Preaching career

Utley had a conversion experience in 1921, inspired by the preaching of

Aimee Semple McPherson Aimee Elizabeth Semple McPherson (née Kennedy; October 9, 1890 – September 27, 1944), also known as Sister Aimee or Sister, was a Canadian-born American Pentecostalism, Pentecostal Evangelism, evangelist and media celebrity in the 1920 ...

while she was living in

Fresno, California Fresno (; ) is a city in the San Joaquin Valley of California, United States. It is the county seat of Fresno County, California, Fresno County and the largest city in the greater Central Valley (California), Central Valley region. It covers a ...

. Within two years Utley was preaching across the United States, and at the age of fourteen she preached to a crowd of 14,000 people at

Madison Square Garden Madison Square Garden, colloquially known as the Garden or by its initials MSG, is a multi-purpose indoor arena in New York City. It is located in Midtown Manhattan between Seventh Avenue (Manhattan), Seventh and Eighth Avenue (Manhattan), Eig ...

. During Utley's appearances at the Chicago World's Fair in 1933, during a heatwave, her program was promoted as having "cooled air" and comfortable seats. In 1935, she was ordained by the

Methodist Episcopal Church The Methodist Episcopal Church (MEC) was the oldest and largest Methodist denomination in the United States from its founding in 1784 until 1939. It was also the first religious denomination in the US to organize itself nationally. In 1939, th ...

. Utley was called "the

Joan of Arc Joan of Arc ( ; ; – 30 May 1431) is a patron saint of France, honored as a defender of the French nation for her role in the siege of Orléans and her insistence on the Coronation of the French monarch, coronation of Charles VII o ...

of the modern religious world". She was also called a "second

Billy Sunday William Ashley Sunday (November 19, 1862 – November 6, 1935) was an American evangelist and professional baseball outfielder. He played for eight seasons in the National League before becoming the most influential American preacher during t ...

" and, as a young woman, "the ingenue of evangelism" and "the Garbo of the pulpit".

Later life

She married salesman Wilbur Eugene Langkop in 1938. Uldine was committed to a mental hospital shortly after her marriage, and they eventually divorced. Utley spent the rest of her life in and out of mental institutions. She died in 1995, at the age of 83, in

San Bernardino, California San Bernardino ( ) is a city in and the county seat of San Bernardino County, California, United States. Located in the Inland Empire region of Southern California, the city had a population of 222,101 in the 2020 census, making it the List of ...

. A biography of Utley was published in 2016.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Utley, Uldine 1912 births 1995 deaths People from Durant, Oklahoma American evangelists Women evangelists American Methodist clergy 20th-century American clergy