Joseph Columbus Davis Jr. (June 15, 1919 – November 26, 1989) was an American businessman and

tennis Tennis is a racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent ( singles) or between two teams of two players each ( doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket that is strung with cord to strike a hollow rubber ball ...

player.Jeff Woods
Mixing It Up: In mayor's race, Briley snipes at Dean and Gentry laughs at Clement
, ''

Nashville Scene ''Nashville Scene'' is an alternative newsweekly in Nashville, Tennessee. It was founded in 1989, became a part of Village Voice Media in 1999, and later joined the ranks of sixteen other publications after a merger of Village Voice Media with ...

'', April 26, 2007Bill Traughber
Joe Davis: Former Tennis Great
,

Vanderbilt Commodores The Vanderbilt Commodores are the college athletics in the United States, intercollegiate athletic teams that represent Vanderbilt University, located in Nashville, Tennessee. Vanderbilt fields 16 varsity teams (6 men's teams and 10 women's team ...

, April 18, 2007

Early life

Joseph Columbus Davis was born in 1919 in

Cincinnati, Ohio Cincinnati ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Hamilton County. Settled in 1788, the city is located at the northern side of the confluence of the Licking and Ohio rivers, the latter of which marks the state line wit ...

.Joe C. Francis Foundation
/ref> His father was Joseph Columbus. His mother, Frances Bond Davis, was a feminist activist who supported the Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution of 1920.Doug Campbell
Matriarch of family with close ties to Vanderbilt dies at 105
November 6, 1999 He had a brother, Rascoe Bond Davis, and a sister, Bond Davis DeLoache. His family moved to

Nashville, Tennessee Nashville is the capital city of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the county seat, seat of Davidson County, Tennessee, Davidson County. With a population of 689,447 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 U.S. census, Nashville is the List of muni ...

at an early age. He attended Montgomery Bell Academy, where he started playing tennis. Davis was implored to come to Vanderbilt by Dr. Tom Zerfoss. He graduated from

Vanderbilt University Vanderbilt University (informally Vandy or VU) is a private research university in Nashville, Tennessee. Founded in 1873, it was named in honor of shipping and rail magnate Cornelius Vanderbilt, who provided the school its initial $1-million ...

, where he won 35 titles, including three Southeastern Conference championships, between 1936 and 1942. He also played on the Vanderbilt

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appr ...

team. During Davis' freshman year at Vanderbilt his father died . To support his family, he sold tailor-made suits to fraternities on campus. During the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, he joined the

United States Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage ...

and served as a Lieutenant, participating in the invasions of

Sicily (man) it, Siciliana (woman) , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = Ethnicity , demographics1_footnotes = , demographi ...

Salerno Salerno (, , ; nap, label= Salernitano, Saliernë, ) is an ancient city and ''comune'' in Campania (southwestern Italy) and is the capital of the namesake province, being the second largest city in the region by number of inhabitants, after ...

and

Normandy Normandy (; french: link=no, Normandie ; nrf, Normaundie, Nouormandie ; from Old French , plural of ''Normant'', originally from the word for "northman" in several Scandinavian languages) is a geographical and cultural region in Northwestern ...

Business

From 1945 to 1955, he worked in the coal mining industry under

Justin Potter Justin Smith "Jet" Potter (1898–1961) was an American businessman from Tennessee. His business interests included coal mining and sales and distribution in Kentucky; a chemical corporation; insurance; banking; and media holdings. Staunchly oppo ...

(1898–1961). In 1955, he started his own coal mining business, Davis Coals, Inc., focusing on coal fields in

Kentucky Kentucky ( , ), officially the Commonwealth of Kentucky, is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States and one of the states of the Upper South. It borders Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio to the north; West Virginia and Virginia to ...

, like Justin Potter.Ken Whitehouse
Two-year-old niece of Mayor Karl Dean killed in Belle Meade accident
''

Nashville City Paper ''The City Paper'' (also known as ''The Nashville City Paper'') is a free, weekly newspaper that serves Nashville, Tennessee opened November 1, 2000. The newspaper will reopened under new ownership of Nashville News on January 1, 2021 ''The C ...

'', February 16, 2012 Later, he started the Webster County Coal Corporation, which owned the Dotiki Mine in

Clay, Kentucky Clay is a home rule-class city in Webster County, Kentucky, in the United States. The population was 1.24K at the 2020 census. Settled in 1837, the city is named for the statesman Henry Clay. In 2022 it became a wet city after a petition put th ...

, the most efficient coal mine in the United States at the time. In 1971, he sold his mines to Mapco. It is now owned by Alliance Resource Partners. He was a member of the Nashville Area Chamber of Commerce. He sat on the Board of Trustees of his alma mater, Montgomery Bell Academy and Vanderbilt University. He played golf at the

Belle Meade Country Club Belle may refer to: * Belle (''Beauty and the Beast'') * Belle (given name), a list of people and fictional characters * Belle (surname), a list of people Brands and enterprises * Belle Air, a former airline with headquarters in Tirana, Albania ...

in Belle Meade, Tennessee.

Legacy

He died of

Hodgkin's disease Hodgkin lymphoma (HL) is a type of lymphoma, in which cancer originates from a specific type of white blood cell called lymphocytes, where multinucleated Reed–Sternberg cells (RS cells) are present in the patient's lymph nodes. The condition wa ...

in 1989. He was inducted in the Tennessee Sports Hall of Fame in 1976. The ''Joe C. Davis Professor of Biomedical Science'' chair at Vanderbilt University is named for him. His niece, Anne Davis, is married to

Karl Dean Karl Foster Dean (born September 20, 1955) is an American politician who served as the 6th Mayor of Nashville, Tennessee from 2007 to 2015. A member of the Democratic Party, he previously served as Nashville's Director of Law under Mayor Bill Pu ...

, the former Democratic Mayor of Nashville. Davis is a member of the

Tennessee Tennis Hall of Fame The Tennessee Tennis Hall of Fame is an organization created in 1992 under the authority of the United States Tennis Association (USTA) which is the national governing body for tennis in the United States. Tennessee is one of the nine states in t ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Davis, Joe C. Jr. 1919 births 1989 deaths Businesspeople from Cincinnati Businesspeople from Nashville, Tennessee Sportspeople from Nashville, Tennessee American male tennis players United States Navy personnel of World War II Vanderbilt Commodores men's tennis players Vanderbilt Commodores men's basketball players 20th-century American businesspeople American men's basketball players United States Navy officers Deaths from Hodgkin lymphoma Deaths from cancer in Tennessee