REV. FRANCIS P. DONOVAN

NEW HAMBURG -- Funeral mass for the Rev. Francis P. Donovan, former pastor of St. Denis Parish at Benton and St. Lawrence here, will be held today at St. Francis of Assisi Church in St. Louis. Bishop John J. Leibrecht of the Diocese of Springfield-Cape Girardeau will officiate, with burial in Mt. Olive Cemetery in St. Louis.

Donovan, 80 years old, died Monday, Dec. 31, 1990, in St. Louis.

He was born in 1910 at Lemay. He attended St. Louis Preparatory Seminary and Kenrick Seminary, and was ordained for the Archdiocese of St. Louis in 1942.

Donovan served St. Joachim Parish at Old Mines 1942-47, St. Leo Parish in St. Louis 1947-48, was associate pastor of St. Joseph at White Church 1948-50, and pastor of St. Mary Church in West Plains 1950-51.

He was named pastor of St. Anthony Parish at Glennon in 1951, and to St. Teresa Parish at Glennonville in 1956. While at St. Teresa he was named the diocesan director of St. Vincent de Paul Society and a member of the Diocesan Rural Life and Home Mission Commission in 1957.

When the Diocese of Springfield-Cape Girardeau was formed in 1956, he was incardinated into the new diocese. In 1962, the mission parish of Wilhelmina was attached to Glennonville and became part of Donovan's responsibilities.

Donovan served as pastor at St. Denis in Benton from 1966-72, and as pastor at St. Lawrence Parish from 1972 until retiring in 1981.