Joe C. Davis Jr.

Joseph Columbus Davis was born in 1919 in Cincinnati, Ohio.[2][3] His father was Joseph Columbus.[3] His mother, Frances Bond Davis, was a feminist activist who supported the Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution of 1920.[4] He had a brother, Rascoe Bond Davis, and a sister, Bond Davis DeLoache.[4] His family moved to Nashville, Tennessee at an early age.[2]

He attended Montgomery Bell Academy, where he started playing tennis.[2] Davis was implored to come to Vanderbilt by Dr. Tom Zerfoss. He graduated from Vanderbilt University, where he won 35 titles, including three Southeastern Conference championships, between 1936 and 1942.[2][4] He also played on the Vanderbilt basketball team.[2] His father died during his freshman year at Vanderbilt.[2] To support his family, he sold tailor-made suits to fraternities on campus.[3]

During the Second World War, he joined the United States Navy and served as a Lieutenant, participating in the invasions of Sicily, Salerno and Normandy.[2]

From 1945 to 1955, he worked in the coal mining industry under Justin Potter (1898–1961).[1][3] In 1955, he started his own coal mining business, Davis Coals, Inc., focusing on coal fields in Kentucky, like Justin Potter.[2][3][5] Later, he started the Webster County Coal Corporation, which owned the Dotiki Mine in Clay, Kentucky, the most efficient coal mine in the United States at the time.[3] In 1971, he sold his mines to Mapco.[3] It is now owned by Alliance Resource Partners.

He was a member of the Nashville Area Chamber of Commerce.[2][5]

He sat on the Board of Trustees of his alma mater, Montgomery Bell Academy and Vanderbilt University.[2] He played golf at the Belle Meade Country Club in Belle Meade, Tennessee.[1]

He died of Hodgkin's disease in 1989.[2] He was inducted in the Tennessee Sports Hall of Fame in 1976.[2] The Joe C. Davis Professor of Biomedical Science chair at Vanderbilt University is named for him.[4] His niece, Anne Davis, is married to Karl Dean, the former Democratic Mayor of Nashville.[1]