Obituary: Mrs. John E. Davis

Mrs. John E. Davis, who was our club president in 1901, passed away last May at her home in Minneapolis. It must be twenty-five years since Mrs. Davis moved away from Wilmette and I have not kept in touch with her since, but I still have a pleasant memory of her as a neighbor and a club worker.

Things grow hazy in one's mind after a lapse of years, but I think that we were meeting in the rooms over what is now Van Deusen's store when Mrs. Davis was our president. The dues were not more than a dollar a year, the membership not large, so we could not afford to pay for professional talent. Our programs consisted of papers written by club members, of home talent music, and sometimes of free talks or lectures given by some leader in philanthropic or civic work to interest us in his special field of service. Our president was largely responsible for our programs and she needed tact and discrimination as well as a patient willingness to work hard. Mrs. Davis had all these qualities added to a keen mind.

As a club we have always been interested in philanthropy and that phase of our work was very dear to Mrs. Davis's heart.

She was the mother of three young children a t that time, Lillian, Benight, and Corbin; she was not vigorous in health, and she was not able to have competent help in her home, but her zeal and interest carried her through her year of office, a successful and beloved president. Her service to our club in lesser ways coveed a much longer period.

Her home for the past few years has been in Minneapolis where she has given largely of herself to her family and to her church rather than to club work. At the time of her death last spring, she and her husband were sharing their home with their married daughter, and son-in-law, and their family of seven children, Mrs. Davis caring largely for the grandchildren while the daughter held a business position. I am told that with all the work and complications which such a large family entails, the spirit of thehome was fine and things went smoothly under Mrs. Davis's guiding hand. [written by L.C.B]