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Helen Davis Obituary
For much of her professional career, Ms. Davis was an economist with the U.S. government in Washington, D. C. and later served as a real estate agent in Fairfax County, Virginia while bringing up her family. She was married for 26 years to James Porter Davis, former Director of the Office of Territories in the U.S. Department of the Interior. He died in 1977.
Ms. Davis was born in New York City in 1912. She was an Honors graduate of Swarthmore College and later did graduate work at New York University and the University of Chicago. Upon graduation from Swarthmore in 1934, she was employed at Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. before joining the government as an economist in the Office of Price Administration during World War II.
After the war, Ms. Davis purchased a former farm house in McLean that provided the base from which she and Mr. Davis reared their children, grew vegetables and explored the mountains and beaches of the East Coast, including regular visits to a second home on Nantucket during school vacations. A life-long hiker and swimmer, she also had a long-standing interest in nutrition and health issues of all kinds. She sold the farm house in 1986 after retiring to Venice. She moved to Atlanta in 2010.
Survivors include:, two sons, Peter Davis of Atlanta, Georgia and Donald Davis of Asheville, North Carolina; two sisters, Grace Bentley of Cortland, New York and Jean Elliott of Alexandria, Virginia; and three granddaughters. Also surviving are a stepdaughter, Jean Sherman of Charlottesville, Virginia and Nantucket, Massachusetts; and a number of stepgrandchildren, stepgreat-grandchildren, nieces and nephews and grandnieces and grandnephews.
There will be no local services. A memorial service will be held in northern Virginia in April 2018.
Memorial donations may be made to the Venice YMCA, the Venice Public Library or Nantucket
To plant trees in memory, please visit the Sympathy Store.
Memories and Condolences
for Helen Davis
2 Entries
Jim and Amy Linkletter
November 12, 2017
Prayers for the Davis family.
Becky Gilleran
October 25, 2017
To the Davis Family,
I pray that all of you find comfort in knowing what a full, accomplished, and amazingly long life your mother led. My deepest condolences to each of you.
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