Donald E. Davenport

Of Oakland, California, passed away on Sunday, May 20, 2012, at Kaiser Oakland Hospital. He was born in Jackson, Michigan, on November 30, 1936. Serving in the Air Force he later graduated from Jackson Community College and the University of Michigan where he earned a master’s degree. After working at the General Motors Proving Ground in Milford he moved to Oakland, California in 1976.

He was preceded in death by his parents Decilla Ann Knight-Davenport and James Basil Davenport; his stepbrothers James, Edwin, and Leon Davenport; his uncles Sanderson, George and Charles Knight; his aunts Rose Knight Lucas and Mary Knight Owens; cousins Robert Owens, Keith Knight, Alice Hill, Mary Helen Kelly, Princess “Precious” Hill, and Byron Moore; and his daughter Melissa Davenport and her son Darius Davenport.

He is survived by his daughter Michelle Davenport and her three daughters Brittany, Angelique and Ciara Davenport, all of Ann Arbor; his ex-wife Dalmanutha Davenport of Ann Arbor; step nieces Edwina Davenport of Indianapolis and her children Shawnee Davenport and Sherman Morell, Decilla Rene Bass, Alma Marie Davenport of Ann Arbor, Yvonne Bristow, Loretta Hayes of Jackson, Hope Davenport of Lansing and Cheryl Durham of Kansas City, Regina Norris, Vinetta Willis; step nephews James Sheridan of Detroit, John Henry and Daryl Davenport of Jackson; cousins Kenneth Knight of Detroit, Chanda Kelly of Toledo, Constance Kelly of Las Vegas, Edamae Williams and Edward Rudolph of Battle Creek; ex-sisters-in–law Janet Davenport, Erma Green and Shirley Davenport; special cousin Michael Bicey of Jackson and special friend Eric Cone of Oakland, California.

Family members and friends will be celebrating the life and legacy of Donald and his community work, including in Michigan the presidency of Arrowood Hills in Ann Arbor and formation of the Midwest Association of Housing Cooperatives, and in California as Chairman of the District Council and later as Executive Director for over twenty years of the San Antonio Community Development Corporation whose founding he facilitated in 1980. In 1992, to honor his Seminole and Cherokee heritage, he helped found the Black Native American Association, sponsoring a pow wow in September 2010. Among many awards he was a 1997 recipient of the San Francisco Foundation's Daniel E. Koshland Civic Unity award for his community service in Oakland, California. In recent years he also served on the boards of Oakland Community Action Partnership and the Pacific Chapter of the National Neuropathy Association. Funeral services remembering Donald’s life will be at the Lily Missionary Baptist Church on Saturday June 2, 2012 at 10:00 A.M. Family hour Saturday 9:00 A.M. until service time. Burial Roseland Cemetery. Viewing at the funeral home Friday 2-8 P.M.

Patience-Montgomery Funeral Home

406 First Street

Jackson, MI 49201

(517) 782-0591