Marlin C. Davis

Marlin C. Davis, age 91, of Glenwood, died Thursday, December 26, 2002.

He was born on April 11, 1911, at Wilmar, Arkansas. On March 6, 1932, he was married to Bessie Louise Gibbs, who preceded him in death on April 4, 1996. He was also preceded in death by one brother, James Davis.

He moved to Glenwood in his younger years where he met and married Bessie Louise Gibbs. In 1946, he and his wife purchased the local funeral home and together for the next 43 years, they operated Davis Funeral Home. In 1989, Marlin and Louise retired from the business.

Marlin, along with the late Hoss Murry and the late Richard Billingsley were the original group of three that formed Selected Funeral and Life Insurance Company. The group was later expanded to twenty funeral homes and the name "Selected" was adopted because each of the original twenty funeral homes had been "selected" to be a part of the Company. Marlin served as a member of the Board of Directors in the early years of the Company, and later served as an advisory director. He was named Chairman Emeritus of the Board of Directors of the Company.

For many years, he was President of the Glenwood Cemetery Association. He was Presbyterian by faith but was very active in the Glenwood United Methodist Church. Marlin was a member of the Glenwood Masonic Lodge #662, where he received his fifty year pin as a Mason and was also a member of the Buffalo Gap Masonic Lodge #484.

He is survived by one brother, Walter Davis of Riverside, California; three sisters, Mary Measel of Beaumont, Texas, Shirley Palmer of El Dorado, and Lillian Grunwald of California; one brother-in-law and sister-in-law, Brice and Helen Gibbs of Hot Springs Village; and many nieces and nephews.

Services will be held at 2:00 PM, Monday, December 30, 2002, in the Glenwood United Methodist Church.

Interment will be in the Glenwood Cemetery, under the direction of Davis-Smith Funeral Home, Glenwood.

Visitation will be Sunday evening, 1:00 PM until 9:00 PM.

In lieu of flowers, memorials may be made to the Glenwood Cemetery.