Biography

In 1922, when Norman Lee Davis was baptized a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the event marked three generations of the same family who had joined the faith. Norman’s mother and grandmother had previously converted on the same day in 1906 and now Norman followed their lead.[1]

Norman was born on 3 January 1911, in Golansvile, Caroline County, Virginia, the second of Abner and Eva Lena Davis’s children.[2] In 1920, the family lived in Golansville at the home of Norman’s grandmother, Nellie Sargent, the matriarch of the family and the driving force behind her family’s religious conversion.[3]

It is not surprising then that two years later, Nellie’s two oldest grandchildren who still lived with her accepted baptism as Latter-day Saints. Norman and his older sister Gladys were baptized on the same day in May 1922. Elder Walter B. Waldron from Morgan, Utah, baptized eleven-year-old Norman and then his companion George N. Rollison from Robin, Idaho, confirmed him on the same day.[4] 

Norman grew up in Caroline County where he attended school at least to the fourth grade.5] In 1936, his mother Eva divorced his father Abner on grounds of desertion, an indication that Norman likely had to assume significant responsibility at an early age.[6] By 1940, he had married Mary Falmoth Davis and supported his own family as a truck driver. He and his wife Mary also worked on their family farm in Balty, Virginia. The young couple were parents to a three-year old son, Norman Jr., when a census taker visited them in April 1940.[7] Norman registered for the World War II draft later that same year; on his draft card he described himself as six feet, two inches tall, having dark skin and brown eyes, and weighing 172 pounds.[8]

Sadly, Norman died four years later of an unknown cause. By that time he had moved to New Jersey, likely to take advantage of war related work. On 11 July 1944, at the young age of 33, Norman died in Middlesex General Hospital in New Brunswick, New Jersey. His body was returned to Virginia for a funeral at Fredericksburg where he was then buried.[9]

By Joseph Stuart with research assistance from Kelly Sigui

Primary Sources

Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Record of Members Collection. Southern States Mission. Virginia District. Microfilm 1995. Family History Library. Salt Lake City, Utah.

Commonwealth of Virginia. Bureau of Vital Statistics. State Health Department. Eva L. Davis, Divorce from Abner L. Davis. Virginia Divorce Records, 1918-2014. Richmond, Virginia.

“Davis.” Presiding Bishopric stake and mission census, 1914-1935. C.R. 4 311. Church History Library, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Salt Lake City, Utah.

“Norman L. Davis.” Central New Jersey Home News. New Brunswick, New Jersey. 13 July 1944, 20.

“Norman Lee Davis.” Central New Jersey Home News. New Brunswick, New Jersey. 14 July 1944, 12.

United States. 1920 Census. Virginia, Caroline County, Madison District.

United States. 1940 Census. Virginia, Caroline County, Madison District.

United States. Virginia. World War II Draft Registration Cards. Norman Lee Davis. National Archives and Records Administration. Washington D.C.

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