Elizabeth Loring (1909-1976) was an author and playwright active in the Mormon community in Pierce County. Born in Kansas, she moved with her family to Washington State by 1920 where she graduated from Mount Vernon High School in 1927 (1, 2). By 1930, she was employed as a public school teacher, and in 1933 she married George Loring, a dentist (3, 4). Their two children, Elizabeth Ann and Thomas Lovell were born in 1940 and 1949 (5). She and her family joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints around 1953 (6).

Since childhood, she had acted in and directed plays, as well as singing and composing songs, and in the late 1950s she became involved with Lakewood’s On Stage Summer Theatre. She held many roles in this company, which was organized and directed by fellow Mormon, Thor Neilsen (7,8). Her son was killed in a tragic automobile accident and she memorialized his life in a small book of reminiscences and genealogy, Thomas Lovell Loring, 1949-1966 (6, 9).

She spent seven years developing her play, You’re No Stranger, based on the diary of Amos Fuller, an early associate of the founder of Mormonism, Joseph Smith. It was produced locally in 1971 and 1973 (7, 10). She died in 1976 at the age of 66 (11).