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NEWSCLIPS
from the scrap books of
Virginia Day Fritscher
Jacksonville Journal and Courier, April 1938
Father Day’s First Mass Here
The First Sunday in May
John B. Day Will Be Ordained as Priest of Catholic Church
Jacksonville Young Man to Be Ordained April 24 at Springfield
John B. Day of this city, who is completing his studies at Kenrick seminary at St. Louis, will be ordained to the priesthood of the Roman Catholic church Sunday, April 24, by His Excellency Bishop James Griffin, D.D., Bishop of Springfield, in the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception.
Rev. Father Day will say his first solemn mass Sunday, May 1, at 10 a.m. at the Church of Our Saviour in Jacksonville, a ceremony that will be largely attended by members of the parish and friends of the young priest.
A dinner in his honor will be given at the Knights of Columbus hall on East State Street immediately after his first solemn mass. There will be a reception the same evening at the home of Father Day’s parents, Mr. and Mrs. B. Day, at 517 South Church street.
Father Day will say a mass at Kampsville Monday, May 2, and at Michael on Tuesday, May 3. He is a former resident of Calhoun county and well known in those communities.
He will be the first priest from this parish to be ordained. A number of relatives and friends will go to Springfield for the ordination service at the cathedral.
Father Day has many friends who have followed his progress through the preparatory schools and seminary with much interest. He will be assigned to a parish soon after ordination.
He was born July 17, 1912 at Hamburg, Calhoun county, where he attended St. Anselm’s parochial school, followed by a year at Kampsville High school. The Day family then removed to Jacksonville, after which he attended Routt High school, graduating in 1930.
Father Day attended first year college at Routt in 1930-1931, and spent his second college year at Quincy college. He entered St. Louis Preparatory seminary in September of 1932 for study of philosophy for two years. In September of 1934 he entered Kenrick seminary for four years’ study of theology.
During his student days, Father Day was employed for five summers in various departments of the Journal and Courier. He was in the circulation department, worked on the telegraph desk, and did reporting at various times. His versatility made him a valued employee.
He has always shown much interest in athletics and sports, being an ardent baseball fan. He often played with amateur teams and served as manager of some of them.
In more recent years, Father Day worked during the summer as an interviewer for the National Re-employment Service, and county supervisor of the U.S. Department of Agriculture Economics, with headquarters at the court house.
Father Day is the oldest of five children of Mr. and Mrs. B. Day. His brothers are James and Harold Day; his sisters, Norine and Virginia Day.
A number of visiting clergy will participate in his first mass here, as well as in the ordination ceremony at Springfield.
* * * *
Jacksonville Journal and Courier
March 15, 1945
A. P. Correspondent In Belgium Tells of Work of Major John B. Day
by Hal Boyle
Henri Chapelle, Belgium, March 15. —(Delayed)—(AP) [Associated Press Wire Services]
All day long Sgt. Roy Steinhauer, of Fresno, Calif., sits before a wooden table in a small Belgian farmhouse and lists dead men’s effects.
Most American soldiers carry three things in to battle—a picture of someone they love, a religious article of some kind, and an American dollar bill.
“This is a typical case,” he said and pointed to a handful of objects he was ready to pack for forwarding to the quartermaster depot in Kansas City to be checked again and sent to relatives.
On the table were a few letters, a photograph of the dead soldier’s wife or sweetheart, a pocket knife, a Catholic Saint’s medallion, a pen and pencil, and a one dollar bill.
Testaments and Rosaries
“It is rare we find a frontline soldier who isn’t carrying a religious symbol of some kind,” said Steinhauer. “Protestant boys usually have a New Testament in their field jackets and Catholics have a Rosary or a St. Christopher’s medal.
“And most of them usually have one or two dollar bills stuck away just for remembrance of the old U.S.A.”
From a window he can look out across shining white crosses stretching as far as the eye can see in the largest Allied cemetery on the western front. There are some 16,000 Americans, Belgians, French, British and Poles buried there—although most are Americans—and nearly 9,000 Germans. Among those 25,000 graves are those for scores of Yanks killed in the infamous “Malmedy massacre” at the start of VonRundstedt’s winter breakthrough.
Also buried there are thousands of the finest Nazi troops who died in that last vast gamble by Hitler for victory.
Over one corner of the American section the Stars and Stripes flies at perpetual half staff.
Memorial Flagpole
“The flagpole was built by one engineering outfit as a memorial to one of its sergeants killed in action,” said Lt. John McKenna, of Montclair, N.J., who supervises Allied burials.
Graves are dug by hand by newly captured German prisoners en route to rear areas. Each day a new batch is brought over from the army prisoners cages.
“Once we had a little prisoner who was convinced we were compelling him to dig his own grave,” said T/Sgt. A. H. Herberts, of Chester, Ill., ranking non-com for both cemeteries.
“He thought we were going to shoot him when he finished and kept begging that he didn’t want to dig his own grave—he just wanted time to write his wife that he had died fighting for the Fatherland. He was still unconvinced at the end of the day. He thought he was being taken back to the prison camp to be shot there.”
Combat Chaplain
Major John B. Day, former Jacksonville, Ill., priest, whose parents live at 5536 Pershing Avenue, St. Louis, Mo., is one of the combat chaplains who take turns coming back from the front so that each day the dead soldier can be buried with ministrations of his own faith.
Father Day is a gentle-voiced man with a gentle outlook in life and it saddens him immeasurably to see these remnants of immortality put into the earth. Turning to leave after the last soldier had been buried, he waved across the green and muddy Belgian hills.
“That’s what is wrong with war,” he murmured. “Those crosses.”
Father Day was assistant pastor at SS. Peter and Paul’s church, Collinsville, prior to his appointment as army chaplain in March, 1941.
* * * *
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
August 15, 1942
Now Is Captain
Rev. John B.Day
Headquarters 78th Infantry Division, Camp Butner, N.C., Aug 15—
First Lieut. John B. Day, a chaplain assigned to the 78th Lightning Division, received word Thursday of his promotion to a captaincy.
Chaplain Day, a Roman Catholic priest, joined the Lightning Division after serving as a garrison chaplain at Ft. Riley, Kans, for more than a year. He formerly was assistant pastor of the St. Peter and Paul Church at Collinsville, Ill.
A graduate of Kenrick Seminary in St. Louis, Chaplain Day was ordained four years ago in Springfield, Ill.
* * * *
Jacksonville Journal and Courier
May 1940
Lieut. Chumley And Norine Day Reveal Marriage at Party
Jacksonville Young Couple Leave to Make Home at Fort Benning, Ga.
Mr. and Mrs. B. Day, 517 South Church street [where Virginia, George, and Jack also lived from 1938-1941 and where Jack was born], announced the marriage of their daughter Norine to Lieut. James T. Chumley, son of Alderman and Mrs. Thomas C. Chumley, 1231 South Clay Avenue, during a party and shower given last night at the home of the bride’s parents.
The date of the marriage, May 1, 1940, was revealed at the beginning of the evening, being concealed on tiny slips of paper in capsules attached to the tally cards.
The evening was spent playing cooty, first prize going to Mrs. Gail Entrikin and consolation prize to Miss Clara Ritter. The bride received many useful gifts. At the close of the evening dainty refreshments were served by the hostess, Mrs. Day.
Lieut. and Mrs. Chumley left at noon Wednesday for Columbus, Ga.,where they will make their home. He is stationed in Fort Benning, Ga.
Those present at the announcement party were Misses Angela David, Jean Hoecker, Rosalind Hoecker, Rosemary Walsh [Harold Day’s wife-to-be], Frances Handy, Elizabeth Manz, Clara Ritter, Eustacia Ruyle, Mrs. Thomas C. Chumley, Mrs. Edward Chumley, Mrs. Leroy Gilpin, Mrs. George Fritscher [the bride’s only sister, Virginia], Mrs. Jay Mann, Mrs. James Day [Mildred Horn], Mrs. Jesse Garner, Mrs. Eugene Lee, Mrs. Forest Crouse, Mrs. Kenneth Kinser, Mrs. Richard Wade, Mrs. M. Dombrowa, Mrs. Elmore Sutter, Mrs. Gerald Hagen, Mrs. Nancy Lindley, Mrs. Gale Entrikin, Mrs. Bart Day, Mrs. William Hodgson, Mrs. Orville Cox, and Lieut. Chumley.