Howard C. Cavner

Ozark Saints is Howard Cavner’s first book of short stories. He considers it a blessing to have lived his childhood and young adult years in Branson, Missouri. He attended school there from kindergarten through high school. His inquisitiveness would lead him to earn a Master of Science in Rural Sociology from the University of Missouri-Columbia and a Master of Divinity from Brite Divinity School at Texas Christian University. An ordained progressive Christian minister, he served as an ecumenical campus minister for thirty-five years before retiring in 2018. During those years, he helped college students build fifty or more Habitat for Humanity houses, was an interfaith advocate, and was fond of asking students this question: “What are you going to do to help the world that God loves?”

Growing up in Branson, when it was a quaint small town, allowed Howard to get to know many Ozark characters and be influenced by their common hill values. As a boy, he was in the crowd on the opening day of Silver Dollar City and ran across the swinging bridge, much to his mother’s dismay.