Joseph Edward Davis, age 86, husband of the late Elizabeth Hobbie Davis, died on Saturday, May 24, 2003, at Covenant Place. He was born in Summerton, a son of the late Harry Edward Davis and Mildred Rivera James Davis. He attended Summerton schools and graduated from the Citadel in 1938 with a degree in physics. He was a 1940 graduate of Georgia Tech with a degree in electrical engineering and of New York University in 1941 with a degree in meteorology. He entered the U.S. Army Air Corps in 1941 as a 2nd lieutenant and received weather service training in 1941 at Gunter Field, Ala. He attended flight school in 1942 at Orangeburg, Shaw and Spence Fields. He then served as a pilot and weather officer during WWII (1943-1945) in the Aleutian Islands. He completed Air Corps Engineering School at Wright Field, Ohio, in 1946. He left active duty in 1947 at the rank of lieutenant colonel and served in the U.S. Air Force Reserve from 1947 to 1976, retiring at the rank of colonel. Upon settling in Sumter, he established Osteen-Davis Office Supply and Printing in 1947 and operated the business until selling it in 1985. He was a member of the Knock Rummy Group, the Road s End Club, the Millwood Club, the Thalian Club, the Sumter Coalition, the Assembly Club, the American Legion and the Air Force Association. He was a former member of the Cooper River Club, the Shelor Pond Club, the Sumter Lions Club, the Sumter Merchants Association-past president, and the Sumter Chamber of Commerce. He was a member of the Episcopal Church of the Holy Comforter, where he once served as a member of the vestry. Surviving are one son, Dr. Joseph Edward Davis Jr. and his wife, Ruth Hutchinson Davis, of Montgomery, Ala.; one daughter, Hobbie Davis Williams and her husband, Gregory Haywood Williams, of Sumter; four grandchildren, Joseph Edward Davis III and Ann Hughston Davis, both of Montgomery, Ala., Virginia Williams Bernal of Austin, Texas, and Elizabeth Hobbie Williams of Columbia; one great-grandson, Joaquin Salvador Bernal of Austin. Funeral services will be held on Tuesday at 3 p.m. at the Episcopal Church of the Holy Comforter with the Revs. John M. Barr III and Mark R. Riggs officiating. Burial will follow in the Summerton Evergreen Cemetery. Pallbearers will be John Evans James III, George Coggin James Jr., William Johns James, Thomas Cooper James Jr., Hugh McCutchen James Jr. and Joseph Alston James. Honorary pallbearers will be Charles Alston James, Hodgdon Christian Nuckols Jr., William Watson Chamblin, John Arthur Folley, and members of the Knock Rummy Group and the Road s End Club. The family will receive friends at the residence. Memorials may be made to The Episcopal Church of the Holy Comforter, P.O. Box 338, Sumter, SC 29150, or to York Place, 234 Kings Mountain Street, York, SC 29745. Online memorial messages may be sent to the family at http://www.bullockfuneralhome.com/. The family has chosen Bullock Funeral Home to handle the arrangements.
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