Margaret "Elaine" Davis, wife of George A. Davis, died Sunday evening, May 15th, 2016 in Memphis, TN. She was 101 old. In her estimation, this was too young, since her father reached 102 and his brother Charley attained 106. Born on August 31, 1914, in Anderson, Missouri, Elaine grew up on an Ozark farm in the southwest corner of Missouri with her brothers Maurice, David, and James (Jim).

Her sixteenth year was an eventful oneshe graduated from high school, and the family home burned to the ground. The Depression had engulfed the entire nation by then, and it was difficult for them to rebuild. When the house was completed, it was half its former size. With the family''s farm income diminished, she had to take over the household chores for the family of six to enable her mother to travel to a neighboring town, where she earned a teaching certificate for a much-needed job. Elaine excelled at household management during a time when meals were all cooked from scratch on a wood stove, air-conditioning wasn''t available, and clothes were cleaned on a washboard with water hauled from a well and heated over a fire!

In spite of such hardships, Elaine enjoyed the finer things. She and her mother often performed for their small Missouri town, with Elaine playing the violin and her mother the piano. Elaine married George Davis on August 29, 1932, and lived on his family farm. In 1938, their only child, Karen Lee Davis, was born. George was not accepted into military service for WW II due to flat feet, but he was able to work in the coal mines across the state border in Oklahoma. After the war, they moved to Colorado, where he ran a lumber yard. Some family members had become franchisees of the Overhead Door Company, and in the early 1950s George became employed by an Overhead Door Company distributorship in the Rio Grande Valley of Texas. Shortly thereafter, they were offered the opportunity to become the Memphis Overhead Door Company distributor, and they moved to Memphis in 1953. As a team, and later singly, they ran the business successfully for almost the next sixty years, interspersing work with travel to visit family as far south as the Rio Grande Valley in Texas and as far north as Fairbanks, Alaska.

George suffered a serious and permanent brain injury in 1976. Elaine had to take over management of their company with the assistance of longtime employee Herman Ray, and she became the caretaker of George. At the age of 62, it was amazing she was able to handle both roles. George died of a heart attack on July 7, 1993.

After her husband's death, Elaine continued to work in the business until she retired at the age of 97. "It was time," she said, "to start enjoying retirement." She left the Overhead Door Company of Memphis in the excellent hands of the Herman Ray family, longtime stewards of the business. She loved her family, her cats, and her dogs, and she also enjoyed discussing politics, gardening, eating a variety of chocolate, feeding birds and raccoons, and getting her nails donenot necessarily in that order. Although she left Missouri as a young woman, her roots there were never completely severed; its people and memories were a permanent fixture in her life.

She was a kind and gracious woman who always saw the best in people around her. She grew up in the First Baptist Church of Anderson and enjoyed listening to sermons of Adrian Rodgers of Bellevue Baptist Church of Memphis. In her 90s, it appeared that she had developed a crush on the Dutch violinist Andr Rieu.

She leaves her daughter Karen Davis Clark; grandchildren Nicholas Glynn Clark (Jo Anne Neal Clark), George Benjamin Clark (Kimberly S. Clark), and Diana Clark Gill (John Marshall Gill); and greatgrandchildren Anne Neal Ammons (Christopher John Ammons), Charles A. Neal V, Leah Neal Cunningham (Steven Elliot Cunningham), Kathryn Elaine Clark, William David Clark (Ashley Kaylan Clark), Samuel Benjamin Clark, Caroline Faith Clark, and Daniel Jonathan Clark. Her great-great-grandchildren include Booker Clark Ammons and Caleb Elliot, Walker Dayton, and Harrison Neal Cunningham. She is also survived by her brother, former federal judge James (Margaret) Chapman of Texas, and numerous nieces and nephews.

She was predeceased by her husband of 61 years, George Allman Davis; her parents Noah Lemuel Chapman and Mary Eloise (Cover) Chapman; and her brothers Maurice and David Chapman, both of Texas. Other loved ones to predecease Elaine were "Big Cat" Davis and "Gus" Davis, who were cat and Pekingese family members respectively.

Services and interment will be held at Forest Hill Cemetery South, 2545 E Holmes Rd. Visitation will be at 1 pm with the funeral service following at 2 pm on Thursday, May 19th. The family requests that any memorials be made through the Memphis Humane Society.

Forest Hill Funeral Home & Memorial Park, South
(901) 346-3250