Susan Archer Palmer Davis

1925 - 2020

DAVIS
Susan Archer Palmer Davis died on September 30, 2020 after a brief illness. Susan was born on May 23, 1925 in Baltimore, Maryland to wonderful parents Thomas Myers Palmer and Theresa Yaeger Palmer. Tom Palmer was a student at Johns Hopkins Medical School studying to be a pediatrician. In 1930, the family moved to Jacksonville where Susan attended West Riverside and Riverside Park Grammar Schools, John Gorrie Junior High and graduated from Robert E. Lee High School in 1943. She then entered Wellesley College, and while there she met James McCorkle Davis of Salisbury, North Carolina, who was a medical student at Harvard and became her lifelong companion and friend. After they both graduated in June, they married in August 1947 in Jacksonville. They lived in Boston, Massachusetts for five years where Jim was in a surgical training program at Massachusetts General Hospital. In 1952, Jim entered the United States Army and was sent to Korea and Japan to be a surgeon at Tokyo Army Hospital. The family joined him in Tokyo where life was very interesting. They returned to the U.S. in 1954 and lived in Asheville, North Carolina while Jim worked at the VA hospital in Oteen. They moved to Jacksonville in 1955 where Jim practiced surgery. Susan and the family loved life in Jacksonville, especially their many friends and the St. Johns River. They were also fortunate to enjoy many fun times with family and friends at High Hampton in Cashiers, North Carolina.
Susan was a member of St. Johns Presbyterian Church and many other organizations, including the Acacia Garden Circle, the Colonial Dames of America, the Junior League, the 20/20 Book Club, the High Hampton Colony Club, and Timuquana Country Club. She enjoyed family gatherings, playing tennis and bridge, traveling, going to Jacksonville Symphony concerts, exploring mountain trails, attending St. Johns Presbyterian Church, and anything musical, from Michael Jackson to the Metropolitan Opera. Susan had a full, happy, and blessed life. Psalm 16:6 expresses it well, "The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places."
She was predeceased by her husband of 56 years, James McCorkle Davis, Jr., her beloved sister Charlotte Palmer Watkins, and her grandson, Thomas Palmer Baker. She is survived by her brother, Louis Charles Palmer, her children, James McCorkle Davis, III (Mildred), Anne Davis Baker (John), Katherine Davis Marple, Thomas Palmer Davis (Julie) and Rebecca Davis McKee (Will), her grandchildren Edward L'Engle Baker, II (Lauren), John Daniel Baker, III, Alexandra Keyes Davis, Susannah Baker Williams (Buck), James McCorkle Davis, IV, Julia Brooke Davis Lupo (Ben), Rebecca Katherine McKee, Susan Palmer Davis, and Elizabeth Dills McKee. She was also blessed to have eight great-grandchildren.
Although Susan cherished and enjoyed her many extended family members and friends, due to COVID-19, the service to celebrate Susan's life will be limited to her children and grandchildren.
In lieu of flowers, gifts may be made to St. Johns Presbyterian Church, 4275 Herschel St., Jacksonville, FL 32210, the St. Johns Riverkeeper, 2800 University Blvd., Jacksonville, FL 32211, or the Jacksonville Symphony, 200 Water St., Ste. 200, Jacksonville, FL 32202.
Arrangements by Hardage-Giddens Riverside Memorial Park and Funeral Home 7242 Normandy Blvd., Jacksonville, FL 32205 www.hfriversidefuneralhome.com
Please Sign the Guestbook @ Jacksonville.com