Lester M. Davis

1896-1952 · Illinois

Born 1896, Illinois

Died 1952

Children include Neva

Lester Martin Davis was born on 29 April 1896 in Illinois. In the First World War he served as a private first class in the 308th Machine Gun Battalion of the 78th Division, an army division nicknamed the Lightning Division that fought in the St. Mihiel and Meuse-Argonne offensives in France in the autumn of 1918.

In 1933 he married Helen Deleen Canupp, a Johnson County girl seventeen years younger than he was, and they made their home at Cobden, in Union County, Illinois. In 1940 Lester and Helen were living in the Cobden precinct with three children: Norma, Louis and Neva, who was two. In April 1950 the same household was still at Cobden.

Lester M. Davis died on 18 February 1952, aged 55, when his youngest daughter Neva was fourteen. He was buried in Cobden Cemetery. A flat government marker over his grave reads "Lester M Davis, Illinois, PFC 308 MG Bn 78 Div, World War I," and the family stone beside it carries his name with Helen's.

The Veterans Administration's file on him records his release from service on 22 May 1919 with an address at Makanda, in Jackson County, just north of Cobden. In 1942 he registered again for the Second World War draft at Cobden, giving the same birth date. That file gives his death as 18 February 1951, a year earlier than the date on his grave.

Children

Neva Deleen Davis 1937-1989

Sources

United States, Social Security Numerical Identification Files (NUMIDENT), 1936-2007, Neva Deleen Davis, FamilySearch

United States, Census, 1940, Cobden Election Precinct, Union County, Illinois, household of Lester M. Davis, FamilySearch

United States, Census, 1950, Cobden, Union County, Illinois, household of Lester Davis, FamilySearch

Find a Grave, memorial 43934411, Neva Deleen Davis Hobbs (1937-1989), Cobden Cemetery, Cobden, Union County, Illinois

Obituary of Helen Deleen Davis Phelps, September 1991, transcribed on Find a Grave, memorial 17432234

Find a Grave, memorial 19582151, Cobden Cemetery, Cobden, Union County, Illinois, photograph

Gravestones, Cobden Cemetery (photographs on Find a Grave memorial 19582151); Social Security application of his daughter Neva Deleen Davis (United States, Social Security Numerical Identification Files, FamilySearch); 1940 and 1950 censuses, Cobden, Union County, Illinois; obituary of Helen Deleen Davis Phelps, 1991; United States, Veterans Administration Master Index, 1917-1940, Lester Martin Davis (FamilySearch arks 1:1:QP5Y-ZXK2, 1:1:7ZS1-C2PZ); United States, World War II Draft Registration Cards, 1942, Lester M Davis, Cobden (ark 1:1:V1VT-JLJ)

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Cite: Heirology, "Lester M. Davis (1896-1952)", https://heirology.com/ancestors/lester-m-davis-1896-1952-62ff75.