Reverend Mr. Harry Davis

Deacon Harry Davis entered eternal life October 17, 2023, at the age of 77. He was born February 10, 1946, to Harry Elmo and Nora Granger Davis, in Monterey, California.

Though he was born in California, Harry Davis only lived there for two weeks. His father had just completed his military service, and the family caught a train and moved back to Southeast Texas. They settled in Bridge City where Harry grew up. When Harry was 10, the family converted to Catholicism and Harry became an altar server. Even as a child he loved his faith and the Church. Most mornings he would ride his bike over to St. Henry Church and wake Father Herman Vincent, telling him it’s time for Mass!

One of the highlights of his life was his marriage to JoAnn. Harry had served in the U.S. Navy for four years. Upon his return in 1968 he enrolled in college. He and JoAnn began dating. On the Fourth of July they were in New Iberia going to visit JoAnn’s aunt. They were driving down a one-way street and she proposed to him! They were both still in college and married several months later during the winter break.

After his college graduation Harry Davis worked in several places in Houston and throughout Southeast Texas. He even spent a year working in Saudi Arabia. While he was working in Dayton he felt a call to the ordained ministry as a permanent deacon and enrolled in the program. He was ordained to the permanent diaconate at the age of 35, the youngest age a man can be at ordination. Bishop John Morkovsky ordained him on May 31, 1981, for the Diocese of Galveston-Houston.

He served faithfully as a deacon for the next 42 years, first for the Diocese of Galveston-Houston for one year, then for the Diocese of Beaumont. Deacon Davis’ wife JoAnn recalls that as the Diocese of Beaumont was preparing to build Holy Family Retreat Center Deacon Davis was with Bishop Bernard Ganter and Father Richard DeStefano. They asked him if he wanted to change dioceses since he was from Bridge City. Deacon Davis agreed and was incardinated in 1982. In his four decades of ministry in the Beaumont Diocese he served at Immaculate Conception, Liberty; St. Anthony Cathedral, Beaumont; and Our Lady of the Assumption, Beaumont. He worked as a chaplain at Baptist Hospital, MASH, Beaumont Neurological and Christus Hospital-St. Elizabeth. He also served as a chaplain to the Knights of Columbus #951 and as associate director of Permanent Diaconate.

During the time he was at St. Anthony, Father Bennie Patillo, then rector, asked him to begin ministering to the incarcerated at the city jail. This led to his work as a chaplain at several units in the Texas Department of Criminal Justice. During this time Deacon Davis was instrumental in getting the program Bridges to Life in the local prisons. He retired from the TDCJ in April 2004. Retirement didn’t last long. In July 2005 he was appointed the diocesan director of what is now the Office of Criminal Justice Ministry. He retired from that position in February 2012. Though he was retired and had two bouts with cancer, Deacon Davis continued to volunteer at the prisons and ministered at Our Lady of the Assumption as long as he was able.

In an East Texas Catholic article written on his retirement, Deacon Davis said that he was going to “miss working with people and getting to know who they are and why they’re hurting.”

In that same article Deacon Davis talked about his vocation as a deacon. He had always been very active in the church since he was an altar server and felt early on that he would serve in some aspect of the church.

“I think everyone that grows up in the Catholic Church and has a close relationship to all the people, especially in a tight knit church community, has some inkling about going into the service of the church,” he said.

“I never thought I would be a deacon though. I don’t know if you would say it was a calling, but I was attending a service at St. Joseph in Baytown with my wife, and I saw a flyer about getting information about the diaconate. I don’t know what made me pick it up but I did,” he said.

Through his many decades of ministry, Deacon Davis was been an active supporter of anti-death penalty organizations such as the Texas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty.

“You still find a lot of Catholics in this area and in this state that support the death penalty. We need to remember that our faith teaches us that all life is sacred,” Deacon Davis said.

Deacon Davis is survived by his wife of 53 years, JoAnn Bourque Davis, of Beaumont; sister Charlene Wiggins of Mauriceville; brother Malcom Davis of Port Neches; brother-in-law Sonny Bourque; nieces, nephews, grandnieces, grandnephews; and his fur babies Seth and Sadie, his loving Labrador Retrievers, and other family and friends.

Deacon Davis was preceded in death by his parents Harry Elmo and Nora Granger Davis, and his parents-in-law, Sidney Bourque Sr. and Marie Bourque.

Memorial contributions may be made to the Catholic Diocese of Beaumont, P.O. Box 3948, Beaumont Texas 77704.

A Christian Vigil for Reverend Mr. Davis will be held at 6:00 p.m., Monday, October 23, 2023, at Broussard’s, 2000 McFaddin Avenue, Beaumont.  Bishop David Toups will celebrate a Mass of Christian Burial at 10:30 a.m., Tuesday, October 24, 2023, at Our Lady of the Assumption Catholic Church, 4445 Avenue A, Beaumont with his committal to follow at 2:30 p.m. at Bland Cemetery, Orange.