Frank Walter Davis
First Lieutenant Frank Walter Davis was born July 10, 1897, in Camden NJ, to James W. and Cecelia H. Davis. The Davis family traced its roots back to the Philadelphia Quakers of the early 1700s. His father was in the life insurance business.
Serial: O-903622 — No awards — Locustwood Memorial Park, Route 70 & Cooper Landing Road, Cherry Hill, NJ
The Davis family moved from Camden in 1908 to Wenonah NJ. Frank W. Davis was a graduate of Woodbury High School in Woodbury NJ. After serving in the United States Army in World War I and rising to the rank of First Sergeant, Frank Davis graduated from Dickinson College Law School in 1921. He became a partner in the law firm of Riggins and Davis and lived in Merchantville NJ prior to entering the Army in September of 1941.
The 1930 census shows Frank and Elizabeth Davis living at 1480 Kaighn Avenue in the Parkside section of Camden. In 1936, the Bell Telephone Directory revealed that Frank W. Davis was making his offices at 313 Market Street in Camden.
After training in Miami FL, Frank Davis was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant. He worked in the Adjutant General’s office in Washington DC and was subsequently promoted to First Lieutenant while serving at Jackson MS. When Courtland Army Air Base opened in Courtland AL, he was transferred there as an intelligence officer.
On May 12, 1943, Axis POWs escaped from a nearby camp. First Lieutenant Davis was in a car with two other soldiers pursuing the escapees when the car veered off the road and crashed. Frank Davis was killed instantly, and his two companions were seriously injured.
Frank W. Davis was survived by his wife, Agnes C. Davis, of Courtland AL, his parents of Stone Harbor NJ, and a sister, Mrs. Evelyn Kramer. A funeral was held for him in Camden NJ at the Joseph Murray Funeral Home at 406 Cooper Street. He was buried at Locustwood Memorial Park in what was then Delaware Township NJ. His death was reported in the May 13, 1944 edition of the Camden Courier-Post.
South Jersey: A History 1664–1924
FRANK WALTER DAVIS — Among the younger lawyers of Camden whose career gives special promise is Frank Walter Davis, a member of the law firm of Davis & Riggins. He is the son of James Walter Davis, a prominent citizen of Wenonah, New Jersey, where he was a member of the Board of Education for many years and active in local affairs. The elder Mr. Davis was born in Clarksboro, but moved to Camden with his parents at the age of six, attended the Camden schools, and lived there until some years after his marriage, when he moved to Wenonah.
Frank Walter Davis was born at Camden, July 10, 1897, and lived there until 1908, in which year the family went to Wenonah to make their home. He received his education in the Wenonah Grammar School, the Woodbury High School, and Dickinson College, from which he graduated in 1921 with the degree of Bachelor of Laws. Mr. Davis was very active in college athletics; he played on the football team and represented Dickinson at intercollegiate meets as a member of the track team; and he is a member of the Alpha Sigma Chapter of the Beta Theta Pi Fraternity. His college career was interrupted by the World War; and in September, 1918, he enlisted in the Engineers’ Training Detachment, and was stationed at Camp Lafayette, Easton, Pennsylvania. He was mustered out in December, 1918, with the rank of first sergeant.
For a time after leaving college Mr. Davis served a clerkship with William T. Stackhouse, a well-known Camden lawyer. In February, 1922, he was admitted to the local bar, and three years later, on February 9, 1925, he entered into partnership with John A. Riggins, another Camden attorney. Mr. Davis takes care of all trial work for the firm of Davis & Riggins. He is a member of the Camden County Bar Association, and the New Jersey State Bar Association; fraternally is affiliated with Camden Lodge, No. 293, Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks; and is a member of the Memorial Presbyterian Church of Wenonah.
Mr. Davis married, at Carlisle, Pennsylvania, June 16, 1923, Elizabeth Finley Hemminger, born in Carlisle, and a descendant of one of the oldest families of Carlisle and of the Cumberland Valley.