Joseph Columbus Davis Jr. (June 15, 1919 – November 26, 1989) was an American businessman and

tennis Tennis is a List of racket sports, racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent (singles (tennis), singles) or between two teams of two players each (doubles (tennis), doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket st ...

player.Jeff Woods
Mixing It Up: In mayor's race, Briley snipes at Dean and Gentry laughs at Clement
, ''

Nashville Scene ''Nashville Scene'' is an alternative newsweekly in Nashville, Tennessee. It was founded in 1989, became a part of Village Voice Media in 1999, and later joined the ranks of sixteen other publications after a merger of Village Voice Media with ...

'', April 26, 2007Bill Traughber
Joe Davis: Former Tennis Great
,

Vanderbilt Commodores The Vanderbilt Commodores are the intercollegiate athletic teams that represent Vanderbilt University, located in Nashville, Tennessee. Vanderbilt fields 16 varsity teams (6 men's teams and 10 women's teams), 14 of which compete at the National ...

, April 18, 2007

Early life

Joseph Columbus Davis was born in 1919 in

Cincinnati, Ohio Cincinnati ( ; colloquially nicknamed Cincy) is a city in Hamilton County, Ohio, United States, and its county seat. Settled in 1788, the city is located on the northern side of the confluence of the Licking River (Kentucky), Licking and Ohio Ri ...

.Joe C. Francis Foundation
/ref> His father was Joseph Columbus. His mother, Frances Bond Davis, was a feminist activist who supported the

Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution The Nineteenth Amendment (Amendment XIX) to the United States Constitution prohibits the United States and its U.S. state, states from denying the Suffrage, right to vote to citizens of the United States on the basis of sex, in effect recogni ...

of 1920.Doug Campbell
Matriarch of family with close ties to Vanderbilt dies at 105
, November 6, 1999 He had a brother, Rascoe Bond Davis, and a sister, Bond Davis DeLoache. His family moved to

Nashville, Tennessee Nashville, often known as Music City, is the capital and List of municipalities in Tennessee, most populous city in the U.S. state of Tennessee. It is the county seat, seat of Davidson County, Tennessee, Davidson County in Middle Tennessee, locat ...

at an early age. He attended

Montgomery Bell Academy Montgomery Bell Academy (MBA) is a preparatory day school for boys in grades 7 through 12 in Nashville, Tennessee. The school is located in the Whitland Area Neighborhood. History MBA was established in 1867 in the aftermath of the American ...

, where he started playing tennis. Davis was implored to come to Vanderbilt by Dr.

Tom Zerfoss Thomas Bowman Zerfoss (June 15, 1895 – August 5, 1988) was an American football and basketball player and coach. He played for both the Kentucky Wildcats of the University of Kentucky and the Vanderbilt Commodores of Vanderbilt University. ...

. He graduated from

Vanderbilt University Vanderbilt University (informally Vandy or VU) is a private university, private research university in Nashville, Tennessee, United States. Founded in 1873, it was named in honor of shipping and railroad magnate Cornelius Vanderbilt, who provide ...

, where he won 35 titles, including three Southeastern Conference championships, between 1936 and 1942. He also played on the Vanderbilt

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appro ...

team. During Davis' freshman year at Vanderbilt his father died . To support his family, he sold tailor-made suits to fraternities on campus. During the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, he joined the

United States Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the naval warfare, maritime military branch, service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is the world's most powerful navy with the largest Displacement (ship), displacement, at 4.5 millio ...

and served as a Lieutenant, participating in the invasions of

Sicily Sicily (Italian language, Italian and ), officially the Sicilian Region (), is an island in the central Mediterranean Sea, south of the Italian Peninsula in continental Europe and is one of the 20 regions of Italy, regions of Italy. With 4. ...

Salerno Salerno (, ; ; ) is an ancient city and ''comune'' (municipality) in Campania, southwestern Italy, and is the capital of the namesake province, being the second largest city in the region by number of inhabitants, after Naples. It is located ...

and

Normandy Normandy (; or ) is a geographical and cultural region in northwestern Europe, roughly coextensive with the historical Duchy of Normandy. Normandy comprises Normandy (administrative region), mainland Normandy (a part of France) and insular N ...

Business

From 1945 to 1955, he worked in the coal mining industry under

Justin Potter Justin Smith "Jet" Potter (1898–1961) was an American businessman from Tennessee. His business interests included coal mining Coal mining is the process of resource extraction, extracting coal from the ground or from a mine. Coal is val ...

(1898–1961). In 1955, he started his own coal mining business, Davis Coals, Inc., focusing on coal fields in

Kentucky Kentucky (, ), officially the Commonwealth of Kentucky, is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio to the north, West Virginia to the ...

, like Justin Potter.Ken Whitehouse
Two-year-old niece of Mayor Karl Dean killed in Belle Meade accident
, ''

Nashville City Paper ''The City Paper'' (also known as ''The Nashville City Paper'') was a free, weekly newspaper that served Nashville, Tennessee from November 1, 2000 to August 9, 2013. History ''The City Paper'' began publication as a daily, Monday through ...

'', February 16, 2012 Later, he started the Webster County Coal Corporation, which owned the Dotiki Mine in

Clay, Kentucky Clay is a list of Kentucky cities, home rule-class city in Webster County, Kentucky, Webster County, Kentucky, in the United States. The population was 1,031 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. Settled in 1837, the city is named for t ...

, the most efficient coal mine in the United States at the time. In 1971, he sold his mines to Mapco. It is now owned by

Alliance Resource Partners An alliance is a relationship among people, groups, or states that have joined together for mutual benefit or to achieve some common purpose, whether or not an explicit agreement has been worked out among them. Members of an alliance are calle ...

. He was a member of the Nashville Area Chamber of Commerce. He sat on the Board of Trustees of his alma mater, Montgomery Bell Academy and Vanderbilt University. He played golf at the

Belle Meade Country Club Belle may refer to: People and fictional characters * Belle (given name), a list of people and fictional characters * Belle (surname), a list of people * Southern belle, a stock character representing a young woman of the American South's uppe ...

Belle Meade, Tennessee Belle Meade is a city in Davidson County, Tennessee. Its total land area is , and its population was 2,901 at the time of the 2020 census. Belle Meade operates independently as a city, complete with its own regulations, a city hall, and police ...

Legacy

He died of

Hodgkin's disease Hodgkin lymphoma (HL) is a type of lymphoma in which cancer originates from a specific type of white blood cell called lymphocytes, where multinucleated Reed–Sternberg cells (RS cells) are present in the lymph nodes. The condition was named a ...

in 1989. He was inducted in the Tennessee Sports Hall of Fame in 1976. The ''Joe C. Davis Professor of Biomedical Science'' chair at Vanderbilt University is named for him. His niece, Anne Davis, is married to

Karl Dean Karl Foster Dean (born September 20, 1955) is an American politician who served as the 6th Mayor of Nashville, Tennessee from 2007 to 2015. A member of the Democratic Party, he previously served as Nashville's Director of Law under Mayor Bill P ...

, the former Democratic Mayor of Nashville. Davis is a member of the

Tennessee Tennis Hall of Fame The Tennessee Tennis Hall of Fame is an organization created in 1992 under the authority of the United States Tennis Association (USTA) which is the national governing body for tennis in the United States. Tennessee is one of the nine states in th ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Davis, Joe C. Jr. 1919 births 1989 deaths Businesspeople from Cincinnati Businesspeople from Nashville, Tennessee Sportspeople from Nashville, Tennessee American male tennis players United States Navy personnel of World War II Vanderbilt Commodores men's tennis players Vanderbilt Commodores men's basketball players 20th-century American businesspeople American men's basketball players United States Navy officers Deaths from Hodgkin lymphoma Deaths from lymphoma in the United States 20th-century American sportsmen