Davis, activist investor, dead at 89

Evelyn Davis, the feisty shareholder gadfly who spent decades scolding the business world’s bold-faced names, died Sunday in Washington, DC. She was 89.

Known as the “Queen of the Corporate Jungle,” Davis (right, in a 1990 photo) was a fixture at shareholder meetings, where she would berate management for poor decision-making and treating small shareholders like “peasants.”

Her tongue-lashings and antics — which included wearing hot pants to the 1971 Xerox shareholder meeting — would make today’s crop of activist investors blush.

In 2011, Davis called on former Goldman Sachs Chief Executive Lloyd Blankfein to resign over the bank’s role in the financial crisis — even as she appeared to flirt with him.

“I want people to know I have nothing against you personally .... And you are not a bad-looking guy,” Davis said.

Davis began attending shareholder meetings regularly in 1959, using money she inherited from her late father as well as the settlement she received from her first divorce to buy stocks.

She also published “Highlights and Lowlights,” a newsletter covering corporate governance, executive compensation and regulatory issues, from 1965 until 2011.

“She wanted a business career but didn’t want a conventional career,” James Patterson, Davis’ fourth husband and longtime friend, told The Post.