Jane Blackmore of Creston, British Columbia, has definitely rejected polygamy and the FLDS.

Born into the FLDS community in Canada, she was married at age 18, the first of her husband's 26 wives. He and his wives had a total of 115 children, Blackmore said.

Blackmore is worried about her daughter, Suzie Johnson, who is living at the compound southwest of Pringle. But compound leaders refused to let her see Suzie when she and Cecelia visited in August.

Jane Blackmore said FLDS men typically marry girls at 16, 17 and 18 years of age. "There are a lot of 15-year-olds and a few 14-year-olds known to be married," said Blackmore, now 50.

Blackmore grew up in a family of five wives and 47 children.

Men who have many wives usually have a position of authority in the church, she said. For women, being married to a man with a position of authority is also supposed to give a woman status in the church, Blackmore said. "But the reality is quite a bit different than that," she said.

"For the most part, it was like being a single parent with no authority," she said.

Blackmore said that when she was 25, her husband married his second wife. As he continued to marry more women, she said she might have been jealous a few times. But she said: "I don't think I ever really loved him. It was an arranged marriage.

"I had been in love with someone else."

She said when it came to attention and sexual relations with her husband, "I had my turn."

She said the extended family lived in several houses but that each wife didn't have her own house.

Blackmore, who was trained as a nurse and midwife, said the turning point for her was in her role as a midwife, seeing the "unhappiness and hurt so many women were going through. It was becoming more and more unacceptable to me."

She left her husband four years ago with her youngest child, an 8-year-old girl. Her husband told her they would both go to hell.

She is not able to contact sisters and other relatives still in FLDS communities in Canada, Colorado City and Pringle.

The worst result of polygamy is neglect of the children by the fathers, Blackmore said.

"Back when we had 50 kids, I asked him where is this going? How do you plan to support this big of a family?"

The FLDS men have many more children than they can possibly support, Blackmore said. "It just goes on and on. There's just no way any responsible person can take care of 115 kids, no matter how wealthy or politically powerful," she said.

"There's more to being a parent than supplying the sperm."

Contact Steve Miller at 394-8417 or steve.miller@rapidcityjournal.com