July 12, 1941
Father John Davern
Father Davern was born on July 24, 1882 at Elton, County Limerick, Ireland. Following elementary school in Elton, he attended Blackrock College in Dublin and then St. Patrick’s College in Carlow. He was ordained for the Diocese of Wichita on June 8, 1908 and his first two assignments were to Mount St. Mary’s Convent and to St. Mary’s Parish in Chase. In January of 1917 he volunteered to serve in the army and was commissioned as a chaplain at Camp Logan, Texas. He saw service in the Alsace and the Meuse-Argonne sectors and was wounded on September 2, 1917. Following a month in the hospital, he returned to the front lines. After the armistice he was sent to Brest where he buried 15 – 20 doughboys a day that died from the flu epidemic. Following his service as a chaplain, Fr. Davern was assigned briefly to Ellinwood and then to Walnut for seven years. In 1928 he went to St Rose Parish in Great Bend where he remained until his death on July 12, 1941. Bishop Winkelmann celebrated his Funeral Mass at St. Rose on July 15th. Father T. J. O’Sullivan, a life-long friend of Fr. Davern, preached the sermon and closed with, “Ordained, he crossed the sea to a land strange to him… a ‘mission’ land where he could spend himself in the cause of Christ…for 33 years he labored in our diocese, and they were fruitful years…May God rest his soul.” (The Advance Register, July 18, 1941) Fr. Davern was buried in Great Bend.