James Britt ("J.B.") Davis

DAVIS, JAMES BRITT (“J.B.”), age 93, of Birmingham, Alabama, died at home on November 22, 2018. He expressed his Christian faith through quiet compassion and generosity. He was unfailingly positive in his outlook, a leader who always brought out the best in his followers. His laugh was infectious.

He was born in Birmingham on April 4, 1925, and was raised in the East Lake section of the city. He was predeceased by his parents, James Burk Davis and Leanis Williams Davis, by his wife Nancy Waddell Slaven Davis, and by his sister, Willodean Davis Graves. He is survived by his son Lant Burk Davis and his wife Amanda Neel Davis, by his grandson Lee Neel Davis and his wife Jennifer Catena Davis, and by his great-granddaughter, Amzi Catena Davis. He is survived also by his brother-in-law, Roy Alex Graves, by his brother-in-law Curt Levis, by nieces and nephews Roy Stanley Graves (Debbie), Kathy Graves Justiss, Glenn Canada (Cathy), Nancy Canada Knickerbocker (Tom), Alan Patrick Levis (Brooke), Susie Levis Lirtzman (Al), Linda Levis Volkovitsch (Robert), and by grand- and great-grand nephews and nieces. In the years after the death of his wife, he regained joy through his special friendship with Hilary Cabaniss, who also survives.

He attended Robinson Elementary School and was graduated from Woodlawn High School. During World War II, several months before finishing at Woodlawn, he went to Atlanta, Georgia, for testing and was accepted into the naval aviation cadet training program. As a part of that program the navy sent him to Howard College (now Samford University), which was then located in East Lake, only a few blocks from where he grew up. At Howard he was elected president of the student body. The navy then transferred him to Duke University, where he was enrolled in the Reserve Officers’ Training Corps and where he received his officer’s commission. At Duke he was a member of Omicron Delta Kappa honorary society and Pi Kappa Alpha social fraternity. An outstanding distance runner, he lettered on the track and cross-country teams and was invited to participate in the Penn Relays. It was at Duke that he met Nancy Slaven, his future wife.

After his graduation from Duke (B.S. 1946), he and a close friend signed as “cattlemen” on a United States Merchant Marine ship bound for Volos, Greece, to deliver 600 horses and 300 mules to the citizens of Greece, who were devastated by World War II and were then battling a communist insurgency. The program was a precursor to the Marshall Plan and, later, the Peace Corps. Upon returning from Greece, he went back to Duke to earn a second bachelor’s degree (B.A. 1947). He and Nancy were married in 1948 in Williamson, West Virginia. They remained happily married until her death in 2010. After the wedding they moved to Birmingham, where he worked as an industrial engineer—three years at McWane Cast Iron Pipe Company and three years at Ingalls Iron Works. At that point he left industrial engineering to go into the real estate business with his father—J.B. Davis Realty Company. He enjoyed the real estate business and continued to be involved in some form of real estate from then on. For 19 years he served on the Jefferson County Board of Equalization, 16 of those years as the Board’s chairman. Under his leadership the Board completed a comprehensive revaluation of every parcel of property in Jefferson County and computerized its records. He ensured that the historic records of the department, replaced through computerization, were stored in the archives of the Birmingham Public Library.

He was most proud of his volunteer service on the board of directors of East End Hospital, a charitable organization in East Lake that later changed its name to Medical Center East (now St. Vincent’s East). In the 1980s, under his direction as chairman, a new hospital was constructed on approximately 300 acres of property near the Huffman area of Birmingham. He and his wife found the property while out for a drive one Sunday afternoon.

For 43 years he was a member of South Roebuck Baptist Church, which moved from Fourth Avenue South to property that he located in Roebuck Plateau. He served for many years as a trustee of the church and, with help from the church’s men’s group, constructed some of the first furniture for the church in the woodworking shop in his basement. After moving to Homewood in 1999, he joined Dawson Memorial Baptist Church and was an active member there until his death.

The family expresses sincere gratitude to Daniel Waseka, his primary caregiver in his final illness, who blessed him and the family with his skillful and compassionate ministry.

The funeral service will be Tuesday, November 27, at 2:00 p.m. in the Sanctuary at Dawson Memorial Baptist Church, Rev. Dr. Gary Fenton and Rev. Bill Johnston officiating. A private family burial service will follow at Forest Hill Cemetery. Before the funeral service, beginning at 12:30 p.m., the family will receive visitors in the church Sanctuary. The family has suggested that memorials may be given to Dawson Memorial Baptist Church or to the Nancy and J.B. Davis Scholarship Fund at Samford University.

Ridout’s Valley Chapel is directing the funeral: 1800 Oxmoor Road, Homewood, Alabama 35209, telephone (205) 879-3401.