For over forty years he was a General Authority and member of the First Council of the Seventy of the Church. A one-time mule skinner who spoke with a high-pitched nasal drawl, he maintained an informality and a color in his addresses that endeared him to his listeners. A genuine folk hero, \"J. Golden\" is the subject of many tales and stories that continue to circulate through Mormondom. He was unquestionably an effective speaker. His homespun metaphors and vernacular speech did much to ground the faith of his hearers soundly in the matters of everyday experience