Mrs. Davis is a history maker as well
“We met over spreadsheets.”
That’s how Fred L. Davis says he met his wife, Ella Singleton Davis, when they were accounting majors at Tennessee State University. On March 8, the venerable Memphis couple will celebrate their 63rd wedding anniversary. “Marrying my wife was the best decision I’ve ever made,” he says without hesitation.
Mr. Davis is well-known as a businessman, community leader and history maker. He was among the first city councilmen elected in 1967 when Memphis changed from the mayor-commission to mayorcouncil form of government. Mr. Davis chaired the council’s Public Works Committee when the sanitation workers went on strike, and he led the effort to make sure the workers had the pay raise, improved working conditions and union recognition for which they fought.
In addition to standing by her husband’s side through the good and the bad, she was the first black woman to earn an MBA at the University of Memphis in 1973 and was the only African American and only woman in her class. In many ways, the savvy and steadfast accountant is the wind beneath her husband’s wings.
In fact, as the TSU accounting student with the highest GPA, she was awarded a fellowship to teach the accounting lab where they met. He chuckles with a twinkle in his eye when he says she didn’t like him at first.
She says it was just that the two were so different. “He would be late a lot for class,” explains Mrs. Davis, referring to classes they shared. “I’m a prompt person; I like to be on time. I would say to myself, ‘Why is this fella always late?’ ”
They agree it was not love at first sight. But Mr. Davis didn’t give up
“I’d have to clean up and lock up after class,” recalls Mrs. Davis. “After everyone else had left, he was still hanging around.” The two became a couple around campus, despite Mr. Davis working two jobs on campus and waiting tables on the weekend to pay tuition and board.
Ella Davis graduated from Tennessee State in 1956 and secured a job at Universal Life Insurance Company in Memphis. The following March, the couple were married at the home of his Aunt Julia, who wanted to make sure her nephew didn’t let such a good catch get away.
After graduating, Fred Davis joined the Army and the couple spent two years in France. Returning home to Memphis, the Davises became involved in politics and community activism, working with noted leaders A.W. Willis, Russell Sugarmon, Benjamin Hooks, and Maxine and Vasco Smith. While Mrs. Davis was pregnant, they marched to protest school segregation, holding their toddler by the hand and pushing their baby in a stroller.
After Memphis voted to transition to the mayor-city council form of government, the Davises were asked by Charter Commission members to draw up a proposal for council districts. They spread a map of Memphis precincts on their dining room table and worked diligently to draw up the 13 districts.
Mrs. Davis did the mathematical calculations while her husband focused on the political analysis. Of all the proposals submitted, theirs was accepted.
In 1967, Mr. Davis sought and received his wife’s support to run for a seat on the City Council. That same year he founded his insurance company, the first black-owned agency in six states. For more than 52 years they have worked together to make Fred L. Davis
Insurance Company a success.
A love that is strong and constant
After earning her historic MBA, Mrs. Davis worked in finance at Owen College and then at Lemoyne-owen after the merger in 1968. And she was assistant vice president of finance at Shelby State Community College when its merger with State Technical Institute of Memphis was approved to create Southwest Community College.
In 1996, Mrs. Davis decided it was time to retire. “I didn’t want to work through another merger,” she says, adding that she did volunteer for a committee during the transition.
Through it all, the Davises have been devoted to Beulah Baptist Church in Orange Mound, where she is a deaconess and trustee; and he is a deacon and former head of the Trustee Board. Both say their faith has always been an important part of their lives.
Both Davises acknowledge that though they love each other and work well together, they are very different people. At some point their oldest son even asked how they could possibly have connected. “I was the salesman all the time,” he says. “She’s not good at selling anything. And we both went to business school, but she was a lot better at it than I was.”
“Where one is strong, the other is weak,” says Mrs. Davis. “I often wonder if God brought us together to support each other.”
Lynn Norment is a Memphis journalist who previously was an editor and senior writer for Ebony magazine. She can be reached at normentmedia @gmail.com.