Evangeline McLennan Davis

Family-Placed Death Notice

Writer and editor and Atlanta native Evangeline McLennan Davis died May 25 in Raleigh NC, after a long illness. She was born in Decatur on September 25, 1914, the youngest of six siblings. She had lived in North Carolina for most of her life and in Raleigh for 20 years.Mrs. Davis began her career as a foreign correspondent for The Atlanta Georgian in Japan just before World War II. The Georgian went out of business in 1939. On her return to Atlanta she was hired by Ralph McGill as a sportswriter for The Atlanta Constitution. She was the first woman sportswriter for a major U.S. newspaper.A life-long athlete, Mrs. Davis in the late 1930s won the womens Southern Golf championship four times, a tournament then held in Atlanta. While still living in Atlanta she was also a nationally-ranked tennis player who reached the quarter-finals of what is now the U.S. Open.She left the Constitution and Atlanta in 1938 to marry North Carolina writer and historian Burke Davis. In the 1950s, she wrote a column for The Atlantic Monthly and contributed short pieces to Harpers Magazine. For seven years she was book page editor of The Greensboro Daily News and was later editor of The Virginia Gazette in Williamsburg, Virginia.She wrote three books: Amelia Earhart, a biography; Rebel Raider, a childrens bbook about Confederate naval hero Raphael Semmes; and a book about historic Charleston, S.C. She is survived by two children, daughter Angela Davis-Gardner of Raleigh and son Burke Davis III of Halifax, Virginia; by grandson Heath Gardner and by three granddaughters, Sarah Davis of Washington, D.C., Kathryn Brigger of Stafford, Virginia, and Leah Williams of Warrenton, Virginia; and by one great-granddaughter, Hailey Brigger of Stafford, Virginia.In lieu of flowers , contributions may be made to Hospice of Wake County, 1300 St. Mary's Street, Raleigh, NC 27605. Arrangements by Brian-Lee Funeral Home, 831 West Forest Road, Raleigh.