George W Davis

Funeral Services for George W Davis will be conducted from the New Wine Fellowship Church in Orleans, Nebraska on Friday, October 10, 2008 at 11:00 a.m. with Pastor Lana Dake, officiating. Interment will be in the Orleans Cemetery with Masonic Rites performed by the Jachin Lodge No. 146 AF & AM of Holdrege, Nebraska.

George W Davis, 97 years of age, of Orleans, passed away on Friday, October 3, 2008 at his home on the Sand Canyon west of Orleans. George was born October 28, 1910, on Ridge Ranch in the Eldorado Township in Harlan County, Nebraska, the fifth of fifteen children to John Emerson and Ruth Agusta (Branstine) Davis. He attended school at District #60 country school through the eighth grade. He graduated from Orleans High School in 1929. He played guard on the famous Oriole football team of 1928, which was "undefeated, untied, unscored on." He loved to dance and often sang dirty little ditty songs while fixing his early breakfasts. George learned to play his sister's flute and was an accomplished harmonica player. He was a Master Mason 32 (degree) in Jachin Lodge No. 146 AF & AM in Holdrege.

George was united in marriage to Cleda Mae Samples on Easter Sunday, April 9, 1939, at the Presbyterian Church in Orleans. To this marriage six children were born: John Emerson, Joan, Anne Colleen, Carol Lynn, George Winfred, and Donna Jean.

George maintained a small farm near Orleans, but sought seasonal work away from home. He worked on ranches in Wyoming, the docks in Chicago, the orchards in Washington state, Harlan County Dam, irrigation projects on the Republican and Loup rivers in Nebraska, Oahe Dam in South Dakota, the Chicago expressway systems, Selfridge AFB runways near Detroit, Michigan, defense missile silo installations in western and eastern Nebraska, and the underground utility upgrade in Phoenix, Arizona. He became an accomplished pipe layer.

George was preceded in death by his parents; wife, Cleda Mae in 1994; son, John Emerson "Jack" Davis in 1943; son-in-law, Richard C. Bockus; grandson, Michael James Bockus; great-grandson, Dallas Bockus; brothers: Roy Emerson, John Ralph, Carl Jacob, Sonny, and Theodore Paul; sisters: Grace Ruth Coffey, Wilma Joy Stansbury, and Ariel Kathleen McNamara; brothers-in-law: Elmer Coffey, Carl Nicodemus, Rodney Koenig, Walter Sturtevant, Beverly "Bud" Stansbury, Dean Caswell, Finis Wills, George "Bush" McNamara, Herbert McGarvey, George Cesternino, and Erling Jacobsen.

He is survived by his children: Joan Major and her husband, Eugene of Omaha, Nebraska, Anne Smith and her husband, Verle of Spearfish, South Dakota, Carol Bockus of Eager, Arizona, George Davis and his wife, Kazue of Orleans, and Donna Davidson and her husband, William of Minden, Nebraska; 15 grandchildren; 29 great-grandchildren; sisters: Mary Evelyn Nicodemus Koenig of Greeley, Colorado, Truth Sturtevant of Beaver City, Nebraska, Dorothy Louise Caswell of Aurora, Colorado, Jean Elizabeth Wills of Temple, Texas, Winona Irene McGarvey of Bountiful, Utah, and Shirley Darlyn Cesternino Jacobsen of Rocky Mount, Virginia; and a host of nieces, nephews, other relatives and friends.

George will lie in state at the Mitchell Funeral Home in Orleans on Thursday, October 9, 2008 from 1:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m. with the family greeting from 6:00 p.m. – 7:30 p.m.

A memorial has been established in his memory.

Expressions of caring and kindness can be sent to the family at www.nelsonbauerfh.com

The Mitchell Funeral Home in Orleans is in charge of the arrangements.