CORNELIUS DONOVAN II is the son of  Maurice and Mary Ellen Shanahan Donovan. He was born on May 24, 1897, in Otter Creek, Jackson County, Iowa.

Cornelius served as a corporal in the US Army during WWI.

He died on January 23, 1977, in Omaha, Nebraska. He is interred at Fort McPherson National Cemetery, plot H, 0, 420, in Maxwell, Nebraska.