Lora M Davis' Obituary
Lora M. Davis, 97, of Fayetteville, Arkansas, passed away Thursday July 28th at home. Born February 2, 1925, in Savoy, Texas, she was one of seven children born to Jesse D. Cotham and Ada Henry Cotham.
Lora had incredibly happy memories of growing up on small rural farms during the Depression, with loving parents, brother, and her four sisters as playmates. She graduated from Randolph High School and enjoyed playing basketball on the high school team. As a young teenager, Lora was introduced to Joseph “Joe” Davis from Elkins, AR who had family ties in the community. After high school, Lora moved with her sister Edith to work in downtown Dallas, while Joe had joined the Army and was preparing to go to Europe. When he came home on leave to his “Yellow Rose of Texas,” they were married on Sept. 18, 1943, in Bonham, Texas. Their first child was born the day Joe’s troop ship landed in England, August 28, 1944. Lora, her mother and newborn Sandra, rode the train back to Texas from Tennessee. The war years were spent with her parents on a small farm near Randolph, Texas. Lora and her father followed the news of the war on the radio, and she walked each day into town to check for mail at the post office. Sandy was over a year old when Joe came home, and they moved to Dallas for him to attend college. Joe was called back into the Army during Korea and second daughter, Mary, was born at Ft. Sill, Oklahoma.
Lora enjoyed travel and unfamiliar places, accepted the challenges and over the years she made homes in over thirty houses. She was organized, practical, dependable and the foundation of Joe’s career and the family life they enjoyed. After retirement, Lora and Joe returned to Sherman, Texas. Although they had many individual interests, they were always a team. Over the next thirty years, they cared for elderly relatives and friends, worked on family genealogy, searching old cemeteries and courthouse files. They enjoyed old and interesting things, which they would rehabilitate to use or add to one of their collections. They always came for a long visit when grandchildren were born and Lora became “Oma,” helping for as long as needed. They came when the families had to move and helped to get things settled. As Oma and Opa, they traveled often in their VW camper to visit family and enjoyed camping trips to the western states. Extended periods of time were spent at Joe’s homeplace near Elkins, Arkansas where together, they surveyed the old hilltop property and worked on the cabin. Somehow during these remarkably busy years, Oma made many cherished family quilts. She enjoyed hosting the Cotham Family Thanksgiving in Sherman for over twenty years. Lora also organized the country picnic when the pears were ripe each year for a weekend of hayrides, games of forty-two, and lots of reminiscing and storytelling. The country picnic was something everyone looked forward to and Lora made it all happen. She could always prepare, organize, and direct with real success. She made it look easy.
Lora and Joe moved to Fayetteville, Arkansas in 1999 to be near family. They enjoyed twelve more years together, including visits to the cabin near Elkins, going “home” to Texas for Thanksgiving and family travels to the Grand Canyon. They always stayed close and involved with family. In those years, Lora gradually became Joe’s tender caregiver.
Listening to a description of Lora might make recall the image of a “super mom” but that was never her style. She was always reserved, modest and very private. She was a steel magnolia, completely devoted to her family and loyal to her friends. She worked selflessly to help whenever and wherever she was needed. It was a lifelong trait.
Lora was preceded in death by her parents, her brothers, Clotho and JB and her sisters Billie Jo, Edith Ray, Vera Kathleen, and Virginia. She is survived by daughters Sandra Stevenson and husband Dennis of Augusta, Georgia and Mary Blankenship and husband David of Fayetteville; five grandchildren, Nancy Youmans and husband Charles, Donna Lann and husband Jim, Joseph Stevenson and wife Emily, Kathleen Villar and husband Cody, and Joseph Blankenship and wife Mayci, fourteen great-grandchildren: Frances and Hannah Youmans; Ethan and Jessica Lann; Louis, McCall, Fisher, Turner and Dalton Stevenson; Joseph, Cora, Thomas, and Benjamin Villar; Belle Blankenship and many nieces and nephews. She will always be admired, loved, and missed by her family.
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