George Cleophas "GC" Davis

Euology given Dr Whaley at Aversaboro Baptist Church on Aug 23, 2011

 

G. C. Davis

December 7, 1921 – August 19, 2011

George Cleophas (“G.C.”) Davis of Garner, NC passed away on August 19, 2011 at Windsor Point Retirement Community in Fuquay-Varina, NC. Part of the “Greatest Generation,” George experienced first-hand the growth of North Carolina and America from a rural society to the modern world.

When I think of G.C. Davis several words come to mind: country, change, courage, cost, civil servant and Christian. Not necessarily in that order because the first word that comes to my mind is the word Christian. G.C. Davis is my brother in Christ.

 

George was born near Warsaw, NC in Duplin County and spent his early childhood working the family farms with his brothers and sisters. One of his first jobs outside of the farm was as a school bus driver for Clinton, NC schools. He soon graduated from Clinton High School in 1941 and began to make his way in the world in small town America.

But on December 7, 1941 everything changed. Tom Brokaw said, It had been a turbulent twenty years for our young Americans, and the worst and the best were yet to come. On December 7, 1941, the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. Across America on that Sunday afternoon, the stunning news from the radio electrified the nation and changed the lives of all who heard it. Marriages were postponed or accelerated. College was deferred. Plans of any kind for the future were calibrated against the quickening pace of the march to war. In America, young men were enlisting in the military by the hundreds of thousands. Farm kids from the Great Plains who never expected to see the ocean in their lifetimes signed up for the Navy; brothers followed brothers into the Marines; young daredevils who were fascinated by the new frontiers of flight volunteered for pilot training. Single young women poured into Washington to fill the exploding needs for clerical help as the political capital mobilized for war. Other women, their husbands or boyfriends off to basic training, learned to drive trucks or handle welding torches. The old rules of gender and expectation changed radically with what was now expected of this generation. On the afternoon of his 20th birthday, December 7, 1941, George learned that America was headed to war and he left the comfort of Clinton, NC to enlist in the U.S. Navy, in 1942. He served four years overseas in the Navy, participating in major operations in North Africa, Europe, and the South Pacific.

 

After the conclusion of War World II, George returned to Clinton to meet and marry the love of his life, Marie McLamb Davis. They were married on May 15, 1947 and soon moved to Raleigh, NC. George’s career in Raleigh again lead him to serve the U.S. Government, this time as a civil servant first for the U.S. Army Reserve Station and later at the U.S. Army Regional Recruitment Command. George retired from his position in 1985 after more than 40 years of service to the U.S. Federal government. He spent his retirement tending his garden and enjoying the company of family and friends.

 

When I sat with the family on Saturday and ask them how they wanted their father to be remembered, there was no hesitation about these three words: Christian, family man and patriot.

 

G. C was a Christian. When the Pharisees were trying to trap Jesus, one of their experts asks Jesus what was the greatest commandment in the law. Jesus replied: Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself. All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments. G.C. set the example by living out these two commandments for his family and the community of faith. Watching and observing G.C. Davis we saw embodied in human flesh what it meant for a man to love God with all of his heart, soul and mind and to love his neighbor as himself. His family and his friends learned what it meant to follow Christ by watching him. The values that G.C. passed along to his sons come from the teachings of Christ. These young men talked about how their mama and daddy provided for the things that they needed, the necessities, but the greatest thing that was passed on to them were the values of the Christian faith. He taught his boys the importance of a strong Christian work ethic that began in the tobacco, cotton and corn fields of Sampson County. At the time they did not like some of the things that they had to do but they now have a great appreciation for the values they learned.

 

G. C. also was concerned about his friends and neighbors. If G.C knew that a church member, Sunday School class member or neighbor was sick he would be at the hospital or home immediately.

 

G.C. loved his churches. He attended Hays Barton early in his life but was a long time member at Longview and Aversboro Road. He taught Sunday School for over fifty five years and sang in the choir until he could not stand any longer. As Lynn had written in the obituary, G. C. participated in more than 60 Christmas cantatas, numerous Easter cantatas, and a multitude of musical programs. One of my fondest memories of G.C and Marie came on February .4th, 2009. Ramona and I went to visit with them and shared communion with them. I ask G.C to sing for us and he chose the song: the Love of God. After communion we sang the doxology.

G. C. was a family man. G.C. loved his family. After the conclusion of War World II, George returned to Clinton to meet and marry the love of his life, Marie McLamb Davis. They were married on May 15, 1947 and soon moved to Raleigh, NC. Over the past sixty four years G.C and Marie raised three sons and later enjoyed three daughter in laws, three grandchildren and one great grandson: George Gary and Joanne Davis of Raleigh, Ronnie and Diana Davis of Garner, and Lynn and Beverly Davis of Holly Springs; three grandchildren Kevin Davis of Raleigh, Jessica Davis of Raleigh, and Christopher Davis of Holly Springs, one great grandson, Jackson. G. C. has one surviving brother: Willis Davis of Raleigh.

 

G.C. was a patriot. He loved his country. Tom Brokaw, in his book The Greatest Generation, says, The young Americans of this time constituted a generation birth-marked for greatness, a generation of Americans that would take its place in American history with the generations that had converted the North American wilderness into the United States and infused the new nation with self-determination embodied first in the Declaration of Independence and then in the Constitution and the Bill of Rights.

At the end of the twentieth century the contributions of this generation would be in bold print in any review of this turbulent and earth-altering time. It may be historically premature to judge the greatness of a whole generation, but indisputably, there are common traits that cannot be denied. It is a generation that, by and large, made no demands of homage from those who followed and prospered economically, politically, and culturally because of its sacrifices. It is a generation of towering achievement and modest demeanor, a legacy of their formative years when they were participants in and witness to sacrifices of the highest order. They know how many of the best of their generation didn't make it to their early twenties, how many brilliant scientists, teachers, spiritual and business leaders, politicians and artists were lost in the ravages of the greatest war the world has seen.

One final word. I want to thank this family for providing the best care that they could for this faithful Christian, this family man and our loyal patriot from the greatest generation. May we all be inspired by his life.