Elder Brent Blackburn, Utah senior missionary killed in freak lawnmower accident at Missouri’s Latter-day Saints church in Gallatin, Missouri. Mormon had been serving historic site along with wife, Sister Carolyn Blackburn.
A senior missionary from Utah died while mowing the lawn of a historic Mormon site in Missouri after the lawnmower flipped upside down.
Elder Brent Blackburn, 68, tragically passed away in Gallatin, Missouri, on Saturday August 23 while serving as a senior Latter-day Saint missionary at the The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Blackburn was operating a sit-on lawnmower on the grounds of the church’s Adam-ondi-Ahman historic site when the freak accident occurred.
Utah senior missionary killed in freak lawnmower accident
Blackburn had been serving at the site in Missouri since April 2025 alongside his wife, Sister Carolyn Blackburn. The couple both hailed from Helper, Utah.
Tragedy came to pass as the senior maneuvered the lawnmower along a side hill, only for the machine to overturn, according to the church, KSL reported.
Blackburn died from injuries sustained in the lawnmower crash.
‘Our condolences and prayers are with Sister Blackburn and their family at this difficult time,’ the church’s statement read.
Clay Sheffer, a friend of Blackburn, described him as a ‘good man’ and ‘someone to look up to’.
‘I had the privilege of getting to know him. He played a big part in helping the village of Jameson MO with building their new cook shack,‘ the friend said on Facebook.
According to Blackburn’s Facebook, he studied at Brigham Young University – a popular college for LDS students founded in 1875 by Mormon leader Brigham Young.
‘It is with sadness that we share with you that an accident in Missouri has claimed the life of a senior missionary of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints,’ Church spokesperson Sam Penrod said in a statement on the LDS website.
A funeral service is planned for Sept. 6 in Centerville, according to an online obituary.
