LeRoy Johnson, Head of Arizona Polygamist Sect

LeRoy Johnson, the patriarch and self-proclaimed prophet who presided for decades over a polygamist community on the Arizona-Utah border, has died at age 98.

Colorado City Mayor Dan Barlow said Johnson died Tuesday night at his home in neighboring Hildale, Utah.

Barlow said Johnson, known to his followers as “Uncle Roy,” had been in poor health for some time and had gone to a hospital Sunday for treatment of congestion and pneumonia.

Excommunicated Mormon

Johnson, an excommunicated Mormon who is believed to be survived by 13 of his 16 wives who range in age from 18 to one in her 70s, co-founded Colorado City in the early 1930s.

Johnson and two other families, the Barlows and Jessops, formed the United Effort Plan, a cooperative trust that owns most of the buildings, homes and businesses in the community of about 2,000 people.

Barlow said thousands of followers, including some living in Canada and Mexico, considered Johnson a prophet. Barlow said he did not know when the community would choose a new leader.

The trust’s property is valued on county tax rolls at about $17 million, but authorities have said its total worth may be four times that.

Feud Feared

Local, state and federal authorities have expressed concern in the past that Johnson’s death would spark a struggle between the Barlows and the Jessops.

Johnson’s followers hold the old Mormon polygamist belief that men should create family kingdoms and reign over them for eternity. They split from mainstream Mormons after the church rejected polygamy in 1890.

The state of Arizona tried only once to intervene with the polygamists in Colorado City. In 1953, Gov. Howard Pyle sent 100 officers to the community, then called Short Creek. Thirty-six polygamous husbands and their 86 wives were arrested, but amid public outcries of religious persecution, they received suspended sentences.