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Catherine (Donahue1) Ellis DeCoursey
(1858 - 1938)
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Unknown Kansas newspaper
Widow of Creamery Company Founder was Native of Wyandotte. Mrs. Kate Ellis DeCoursey, the widow of E. E. DeCoursey, founder of the DeCoursey Creamery Company, died yesterday at her home, 444 North Seventeenth Street, Kansas City, Kansas, after a week's illness. She was 79 years old and had been a resident of Wyandotte County all her life. Mrs. DeCoursey was born at the farm home of her parents just north of Muncie, Kas. She moved to Kansas City, Kansas, while a young woman and was married to John Ellis. He died in 1900. A son of that marriage, Harry Ellis, 1831 State Avenue, died last week. In February of 1918 she was married to E. E. DeCoursey. Mrs. DeCoursey was an associate member of the Kansas City, Kansas Children's Home and a former director there; a member of the Altar Society of St. Peter's Catholic church and a former member of the Tabernacle Society of Kansas City, Mo., and the Daughters of Isabella. Surviving are two daughters, Mrs. Gertrude Guilfoil, 1518 Tauromee Avenue, and Mrs. Aileen Barry, Santa Monica, Calif.; three stepsons, James H. DeCoursey, 408 North Seventeenth Street; William B. DeCoursey. 251 North Fifteenth Street, and Frank C. DeCoursey, 628 Ohio Avenue; a brother, James Downs,2 Los Angeles; and a niece, Miss Helen Blue, of the Home. Funeral services will be held at 7:45 o'clock at St. Peter's Catholic church; burial in St. John's cemetery.3 1 I have had some trouble determining Kate's maiden name. On her death records her parents' names were listed as unknown, despite her daughter Gertrude being the informant. I at first assumed it must be Downs, as her brother James Downs was mentioned in the obituary. However, through the analysis of census records and the record of a second marriage for her mother I have deduced that Kate probably was the daughter of Daniel and Ellen Donahue. 2 I believe James Downs was her half-brother, from her mother Ellen's second marriage to Patrick Downs. Kate's father, Daniel Donahue, died in the Civil War. 3 Kate is buried next to her first husband, John Ellis. Her mother Ellen is also buried in the same plot. St. John's Cemetery is in Kansas City, Kansas. |
