Mary Ellen Raymond-Davis (Winston)

(from her obituary)

Mrs. Mary Ellen Raymond Davis, 87 years old, widow of Jonathan Davis, former Kansas governor, died early today (May 9) at a convalescent home here (Pittsburg, KS). A widely known Kansas club woman and benefactor, Mrs. Davis had been confined to the nursing home four years, so crippled by arthritis she was in a wheel chair most of the time. Despite her infirmities she continued in the convalescent home the charitable works which had distinguished her life. Each Sunday she taught a Bible class for other patients in the home.

A Native of Illinois

She was born February 3, 1862 in Carthage, IL. She lived most of her life in Girard, KS, where her first husband, J.E. Raymond, was a prominent banker.

Educated in Illinois, she taught fifteen years in the public schools of Springfield, IL. When her father went to Muskogee OK as clerk of the United States court, she accompanied her parents into the Indian territory.

In 1889 she married John E. Raymond, pioneer Kansas and prominent Girard banker. Following his death in 1931 she gave the Raymond home to the city as a memorial to her husband, the town's oldest settler. It served the town as a community center.

She gave to the citizens of Girard two parks, one a 160 acre tract named Raymond Park in her husband's honor, and the other a children's park, called Winston Park.

Mrs. Davis had no children. During her thirty-three years of marriage to Mr. Raymond, she devoted much of her time to child welfare and took into her home forty children who needed help.

Haven for Children

"We took these children-many of them from the Ozarks-into our home and made them members of the family in every sense of the word," Mrs. Davis explained in later years. "I am truly proud of the results."

In December 1931, she was married to Jonathan McMillan Davis, Democratic governor of Kansas in 1923 and 1924. The couple lived on the Davis farm, ten miles north of Bronson, KS, until 1941, when they moved into Bronson. They lived there until Mr. Davis died in June, 1943.

For twenty-five years Mrs. Davis was on the board of commissioners of the Scholarship Loan Fund, Kansas Federation of Women's clubs.

• Reference: Find A Grave Memorial - SmartCopy: Jan 6 2019, 5:10:27 UTC