Eloise English Davies

Eloise English Davies, one of the first of the Navy Waves in World War II and later a senior attorney on the appellate staff of the Justice Department, died March 3 in her home at Heron Point in Chestertown, Maryland, after a brief illness. She was 94. The daughter of Rear Admiral Robert Henry English and Eloise Walker English, Eloise lived in Annapolis and attended Green Street Elementary School. She joined the WAVES in 1942 shortly before her father, serving as commander of Pacific submarine forces, was killed in a plane crash that also took the lives of his entire staff. Ensign English put on her new Navy uniform for the first time to attend his funeral. As a Navy junior she grew up moving from coast to coast, living overseas in Panama and for many years in Hawaii, where her father was the commanding officer of the cruiser USS Helena during the attack on Pearl Harbor. She was a proud alumna of the Punahou School and returned often to Hawaii to research and write about the 1932 Massie trial, which was based on an incident she recalled from her childhood in Honolulu. Her Navy service began after her graduation from Sweet Briar College in 1942. She worked in public relations and at the Navy Photo Lab, in Washington, DC, where her staff included the future noted photographer M. E. Warren. While on an assignment to the White House, she caught the eye of artist Norman Rockwell, who painted her into a centerfold spread for The Saturday Evening Post -a portrait that would later hang in the White House. When the magazine first appeared, it circulated widely among Navy readers and Eloise said she was teased mercilessly for a caption that read "What has Miss America got that Wave Ensign Eloise English hasn't got?" In far-off Brazil where none of the officers in the BOQ had ever seen a Navy Wave, Thomas D. Davies, an aviator who had just won the Distinguished Flying Cross for sinking a German U-boat, saw Rockwell's portrait in the magazine and determined to look her up when he returned stateside. They married in 1945. While adjusting to the demands of constant redeployments and to the challenges of raising four children, Mrs. Davies decided to take advantage of her GI Bill benefits to go back to school to become a lawyer-the beginning of a distinguished career well before women were encouraged to think of such things. She was among a very few female students at Villanova University School of Law where she graduated with distinction in 1958, earning the Order of the Coif. Mrs. Davies practiced law for the Department of Justice from 1966 until 1984, serving in the criminal, legislative, and civil divisions. On the appellate staff, she represented the U.S. government in civil lawsuits, arguing in every one of the twelve U.S. Courts of Appeal over the course of her career. As a senior attorney, Mrs. Davies served as a mentor and role model to a number of younger women lawyers at the DOJ. Mrs. Davies retired in 1984 to spend more time traveling with her husband, a retired Rear Admiral and former deputy director of the U.S. Arms Control Agency, and to enjoy their children and grandchildren and their home in Potomac, Maryland. Widowed in 1991, she moved to San Diego, California, where she married another retired Naval officer, Capt. Eugene P. Rankin. She enjoyed life in Coronado until Capt. Rankin's death in 2000. For the past 15 years, Eloise lived at Heron Point in Chestertown, Maryland. She maintained an active interest in politics and in the activities of the Supreme Court. Survivors include four children: Thomas D. Davies, Jr, (Kathleen) of Annapolis; Douglas R. Davies (Gretchen) of Dallas, Tx; Ronald A. Davies of Springfield, Mo; Meredith Davies Hadaway of Chestertown; six grandchildren and two great-grandchildren. Services will be at St. Andrew's Chapel, U.S. Naval Academy, Annapolis, Maryland, on April 27, 10:30 a.m. www.fhnfuneralhome.com.