In Memory of Helen Young Davis 1911-2007

Obituary

Mrs. Helen Young Davis, a well-known businesswoman, civic leader, funeral director and longtime resident of Roxbury, passed peacefully in Boston on Thursday, December 20, 2007. Mrs. Davis was a highly visible and active fixture in Boston’s business, community and social circles after moving to the city in 1950 when she married Mr. Norris G. Davis, a Boston native, who had founded Davis Funeral Home in 1935. After his death, in 1967, Mrs. Davis assumed leadership of the funeral home and continued its legacy of dignified services, exceptional grace and sensitivity, which were also her personal and professional trademarks. In 2001, she retired and provided for the continuation of the business under the Davis name by transferring ownership to Rebecca Ridley whom she had groomed. Today Davis Funeral Home stands as one of Roxbury’s oldest and most successful businesses.

The eldest of the seven children of Frank and Hulda Young, Helen Camille Young was born on November 14, 1911, in Little Rock, Ark. She attended the local public schools and then enrolled in Talladega College and later Fisk University from which she graduated in 1935.

As a young woman, she lived in Chicago and Indianapolis and worked with the National YWCA where her responsibilities included employment and job development. Mrs. Davis also worked as a fundraiser for the United Negro College Fund. After several years in these capacities, Dr. Charles S. Johnson, president of Fisk University, asked Mrs. Davis to become the university’s alumni secretary. She was the first woman to serve in this position and did so with distinction until moving to Boston. Mrs. Davis later attended the New England Institute of Embalming and Anatomy and became a licensed funeral director in 1955.

Norris and Helen Davis’s public and private philanthropy touched many lives especially those less fortunate. Known as a pioneering businesswoman with sharp wit and steely nerves, she was equally well regarded for her compassion, caring, sensitivity and hospitality. For many years, she opened her home to young people from all over the country who attended local colleges and universities, and she often advised young professionals on business and community matters in the New England area.

Her local service included board memberships on the United Way of Eastern Massachusetts, Freedom House, Boston YWCA, Massachusetts Children’s Protective Services and Harriet Tubman House, and she was one of the founders of the Roxbury Multi-Service Center. In addition, she was a member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, the Boston Chapter of the Links, the Boston and Vicinity Club of the National Association of Negro Business and Women’s Clubs, Inc. and the Northeasterners. Mrs. Davis also played a key role in bringing the Ebony Fashion Fair to Boston, which became an annual fundraising event to support the educational aspirations of local students. A Life Member of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, she received numerous awards for her civic and charitable work. Her prominence as a civic leader was instrumental in her involvement in a number of public service activities at the request of Governors’ Sargent and Dukakis as well as several of Boston’s mayors.

A trustee emerita of her beloved alma mater, Fisk University, Mrs. Davis shared a special bond of friendship with her college classmates and contemporaries, who included L. Howard Bennett (Minnesota’s first judge of African-American descent) and noted historian Dr. John Hope Franklin, the James B. Duke Professor Emeritus of History at Duke University and former chair of the History Department at the University of Chicago.

Affectionately called “Aunt Helen” by family and friends alike, the late Mrs. Helen Young Davis was buried in a private service on December 24, 2007, in Oak Grove Cemetery in Medford, Mass. Mrs. Davis is survived by her brother, Theo K. Young, Sr. of Washington, D. C., several nieces and nephews and a host of friends throughout the Boston area and nationally. In addition to her loving husband, Mr. Norris G. Davis, her son from a previous marriage, Joseph Howard, predeceased Mrs. Davis. A memorial service has been scheduled for 12 Noon on January 19, 2008, at St. Mark’s Congregational Church, 200 Townsend St., Roxbury, Mass. In accordance with her wishes, in lieu of flowers, donations may be sent to the Helen Y. Davis Memorial Scholarship at Fisk University, c/o Dr. Sulayman Clark, Vice President for Institutional Advancement, Fisk University, 1000 Seventeenth Avenue North, Nashville, Tenn. 37208. Proceeds will be used to provide support for students from Boston and/or Little Rock, Ark.