From 1987 through 1998, state Rep. Grace Davis, D-Atlanta, was an outspoken advocate in the Georgia House of Representatives on behalf of the impoverished and underserved, not just in her near-Southside district but throughout the state.
"Grace fought zealously for her issues -- greater support for aid to families with dependent children, unemployment benefits and Grady Hospital -- always pushing for legislation to improve the quality of life for the poorest Georgians," said retired Rep. Bob Holmes, D-Atlanta.
"Grace wasn't a polished speaker, but you always knew what she was trying to say and exactly where she stood," he added.
Rep. Davis was credited with successfully shepherding a bill to passage that slapped stiffer controls on mortgage refinance practices and, as a result, prevented hundreds of low-income homeowners from losing their homes.
Atlanta Journal-Constitution columnist Cynthia Tucker complimented Rep. Davis in a 1992 column for winning passage of her bill to create a Georgia Commission on the Status of Women. The commission's mandate was to study state laws and policies and to recommend more educated approaches for dealing with women's issues.
Her son, Curtis Davis Jr. of Atlanta, said Rep. Davis had strong feminist leanings. He said she was fond of saying, "It's a man's world, but by golly, I'm making my way through it as a woman."
Ms. Tucker noted it was remarkable that Rep. Davis was able to enlist the support of House Speaker Tom Murphy to gain passage of legislation creating the women's commission. But Rep. Tyrone Brooks, D-Atlanta, noted that Rep. Davis had long endeared herself to the speaker and "Tom Murphy just couldn't say no to Grace."
In 1998, Douglas Dean, who had held Rep. Davis' House seat before her, defeated her in a Democratic primary runoff. Four years later, Rep. Davis was appointed project director in the Aging Services Division in Georgia's Department of Human Services, a position she held for four years. Her son said dealing with problems of the elderly had become a cause that was dear to her heart.
Grace Wilkerson Davis, 72, of Atlanta died Tuesday at Pinehurst Hospice in Macon of kidney failure. A celebration of her life is planned at 11 a.m. Saturday at Shiloh Missionary Baptist Church with interment to follow Monday in Americus. Murray Brothers Funeral Home is in charge of arrangements.
Rep. Davis was born and reared in Sumter County outside Americus. In 1958, she married her high school sweetheart, Curtis Davis, after the two were graduated. She attended Tuskegee Institute, and after she and her husband moved to New York City, she completed her education at Hunter College. While in New York, she worked as an accountant for the ABC Network and sampled her first taste of politics in 1965 working for the election of John Lindsay as the city's mayor.
Returning to Georgia in the late 1960s, she got a job at radio station WAOK as a controller and accountant.
That's where state Rep. Brooks, then a leader in the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, first met her. He and other SCLC members had gone to the station to show their support for WAOK's African-American staff, which had charged the station's out-of-town parent company with discriminatory pay and promotion practices. Rep. Brooks said he was impressed by the way Rep. Davis laid out, point by point, the staff's grievances.
Her involvement with the civil rights movement grew from there. Rep. Brooks said she accompanied him and others in a motorcade to Plains to protest President Jimmy Carter's firing of U.N. Ambassador Andrew Young. Once in Sumter County, he said Rep. Davis introduced him to her father, who still lived there, and the latter urged Rep. Brooks to train his daughter for leadership as Hosea Williams had been training Rep. Brooks.
Rep. Brooks also recalled an incident two decades ago when Rep. Davis, then a legislator, complained of a severe pain in her leg. Rep. Brooks said he insisted she see a doctor and, over her protests, arranged for her son to drive her to get medical attention. Shortly thereafter, Rep. Brooks received a call from her doctor telling him she had had a clot removed that otherwise might have killed her. For years afterward, Rep. Brooks said, Rep. Davis would introduce him to her friends as "my lifesaver."
Rep. Davis' husband died in 1991. Besides her son, survivors include a brother, Edward Wilkerson of Decatur, two grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.
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