Ethon Davis

Ethon Davis (April 9, 1920 – July 10, 1944) was a soldier from Pioneer who was killed during the Normandy Invasion in World War II.

See Also: Scott Countians killed in war

Biography

Born April 9, 1920 in Scott County, Ethon Davis was the son of William Thomas Davis (1897-1963) and Mary Ann Childress (1898-1990). His siblings included Arlie Davis, June Davis Chambers, Jewell Dean Davis Babb, and Edna Mae Davis James.

While newspaper reports of Ethon’s death indicated that his wife and son lived at Elk Valley, census records show that the Davis family lived in Scott County in 1940.

He married Evelyn Douglas on Aug. 8, 1943 in Baltimore, Mary. They had one son, Ethan Sam Davis, born May 19, 1944.

World War II

Sgt. Davis enlisted in the U.S. Army in January 1943 at Fort Oglethorpe, Ga. and was assigned to Co. G, 2nd Battalion, 8th Infantry Division. He completed basic training at Camp Gordon in Georgia on Feb. 3, 1943, and departed for overseas in November 1943.

He was part of the D-Day landing on Utah Beach in Normandy, where he was killed. He died on July 10, 1944.

Aftermath

Sgt. Davis’s wife, Evelyn, was informed of his death by the War Department. His body was returned to Scott County in July 1948, and a funeral service was held at the auditorium of Huntsville High School. He was buried at Hazel Valley Memorial Cemetery in Oneida, where his parents would later be buried.

He received the Purple Heart award. He is listed on the Scott County Veterans Memorial in Huntsville, and the East Tennessee Veterans Memorial in Knoxville.

Evelyn worked in the Huntsville School cafeteria and at Jerry Thompson’s store in Huntsville before eventually leaving Scott County in 1972. She remarried to Levy Stinson, who preceded her in death. In her later years, she lived with her son in Allons, Tenn., near Livingston. She was buried by Ethon’s side at Hazel Valley when she died on May 16, 2013.