Father John J Rapp, 64, pastor of St. Matthew's Catholic Church in
Mt. Vernon from 1935 - 1950 and an influential personage in the life of the Mt.
Vernon community during that period died last night at Ocala, Fla.
The body will be brought to Mt. Vernon for funeral rites and burial.
Coronary thrombosis which in capacitated him for active duty after
36 years as a parish priest and necessitated his leaving Mt. Vernon in
February, 1950, was fatal.
He had been on sick leave since he left Mt. Vernon and had been with a devoted friend, Dr.
George Obere. Dr. Obere
practiced in Batesville, Ind., for many years and Father Rapp went
from Mt. Vernon to Batesville. When Dr. Obere located in Ocala, Fla., several months ago the former local
priest went with him to the Southern city.
The former local priest's mother died during his pastorate in Mt. Vernon. His nearest surviving relative is
a sister, Mrs. Edward Colligan, Richmond, Ind.
The body will be moved from Ocala to the Schaefer Funeral Home in Evansville. It will be brought to St.
Matthew's Church in Mt. Vernon, which the late priest served so
devotedly and capably, at 3 p.m. Sunday and will lie in state in the
church.
Catholic
clergymen will conduct the Office of the Dead at St. Matthew's Church at 8:30 a.m. Monday. The Right Reverend Henry
J. Grimmelsman, bishop of the Evansville Dioceses,
will officiate at a Pontifical Solemn Requiem High Mass at the local church at
9 a.m. Monday. A choir of priests will participate in the service.
Burial will be in St. Matthew's church cemetery.
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Originally submitted by Betty Sellers