Dorothy "Dot" Sharpe Davis

Dorothy “Dot” Sharpe Davis

September 29, 1934-May 8, 2025

Cary, N.C.

Dorothy Grey Sharpe Davis died May 8, 2025, of heart failure. She was 90. A native of Burlington, N.C., Dot was one of eight children born to Charlie and Jessie Sharpe. She was in the first graduating class of Walter Williams High School in Burlington in 1952. She went on to Appalachian State Teachers’ College. There, on her first day, she met G.C. Davis, a junior from Winston-Salem and her future husband.

Dot graduated in 1956 with a degree in mathematics and social studies. She taught high school math briefly before taking a job at NASA’s Langley Research Center, where she became one of the women mathematicians known as human computers during the space race. Her love of her work there led to a lifelong fascination with U.S. space endeavors. She rarely missed a televised space launch.

In 1958, when G.C. returned from the Army and his deployment in Korea, he and Dot married and settled in Raleigh, where daughters Nancy and Deborah were born. Their 58-year marriage was a great example of opposites attracting. G.C. was quiet and intellectual, but he always admired Dot’s zest for life. She was feisty, quick to speak her mind, and the life of the party. G.C. loved it all. As wife, mother, grandmother, sister, and friend, she was loving, loyal, and kind.

Dot was always busy, whether she was playing bridge, organizing the school carnival, leading a Girl Scout troop or playing shortstop on a women’s softball team. As Nancy and Deborah got older, Dot returned to work, first in North Carolina State University’s Department of Statistics and later in the N.C. Department of Commerce, producing the state’s manufacturing directory.

Every summer, the family spent a week at Holden Beach, and in 1992, Dot and G.C. built a house on the inland waterway, moving there full time in 1993. They bought a boat and spent their days exploring and fishing the waterway. They spent hours listening to big band music, reminiscing about all the great musicians they saw in concert together in their younger years. They watched so many sporting events that Dot often said they would watch checkers if the game were televised. When the grandchildren came along, Dot and G.C. split their time between Supply and Apex.

Dot was a devoted grandmother. She did everything from teaching her grandchildren poetry verses to lining up for backyard football scrimmages. She taught them how to count money and how to balance a checkbook, a skill they admit they’ve never had to use. She rarely missed a music recital, school performance, or sports event. They will always remember her good cooking, especially her Carolina football tailgates where she put out a spread of her fried chicken, ham biscuits, marinated shrimp, pasta salad, potato salad, fruit, and a giant bag of Tootsie Pops.

Throughout her life, Dot’s neighbors were among her best friends, first in Burlington, then in Raleigh’s Brentwood, where she became one of the neighborhood moms, and then at the coast, where she and G.C. made new friends who also helped look after them as the years went by.

Dot was predeceased by her parents and her seven siblings, husband G.C. Davis, and son-in-law Alan Menius.

Dot is survived by daughters Nancy Davis (Carl Suffredini) and Deborah Menius, granddaughter Allison Menius Kieb (Josh Kieb), grandsons Davis Suffredini and Ryan Menius, and great-grandson Grey Kieb. Dot’s family is grateful to Andrea, Courtney, Fatima, Iesha, Joy, and Shyla at Avendelle for the care and comfort they gave to Dot and her family.

A service for Dot will be held at 11 a.m. June 21 at Mount Hermon United Methodist Church, where she often attended as a child with her parents and where they are buried (4178 Mt. Hermon Rock Creek Rd, Graham, N.C.).

Gifts in Dot’s memory may be made to the church at PO Box 1060, Graham, N.C. 27253.