Davenport, Mary Elma 1906-1999

DAVENPORT, MATLACK, JOHNSON, WIEMAN

Posted By: Marilyn Holmes
Date: 4/19/2018 at 15:52:54

The Grinnell (IA) Herald-Register
March 18, 1999

MARY M. DAVENPORT

Mary Elma Matlack Davenport, 93, died Feb. 3, at Mayflower Health Center.

A private memorial service for family and friends will be held Friday, March 19, at her childhood home, 1510 East St., now the home of her eldest niece, Jane Wieman.

She was born Jan. 5, 1906, in Chicago, Ill., the second child of Henry William Matlack and Merta Johnson Matlack. Her father returned to the faculty of Grinnell College as professor of music in 1909 and she grew up in Grinnell and graduated from Grinnell College in 1927. Following her graduation, she studied design at the Chicago Academy of Fine Arts with the goal of becoming a fashion designer but the depression changed her plans and she returned to Iowa where she worked as a teacher and associate to the Alumni Office at Grinnell College.

She was married June 16, 1939, to Keith Hamilton Davenport in St. John's Episcopal Church in Ames. The Davenports lived in Grinnell where he was instructor of organ and chapel organist at Grinnell College, and later moved to Cambridge, Mass., where they lived until Mr. Davenport's death.

She returned to Grinnell in 1972 where she was a member of St. Paul's Episcopal Church and active in its altar guild; volunteered as a language tutor to Cambodian and Vietnamese refugees and an active quilter as a member of a quilting group at the United Methodist Church.

She was preceded in death by her parents; her brother, David and four sisters, Margaret, Jane, Laura and Connie, all of Grinnell. She is survived by four nieces and two nephews.