Alvin Davis
Alvin Davis is a horseman, educator, promoter, cowboy poet, author and motivator. He has had successful careers as an owner of a Western wear business and as the director of the "Ranching Heritage Center" in Lubbock, Texas.In 1990 he founded and continues to serve as the director of the popular and respected National Cowboy Symposium. The NCS may be best compared to a 10-ring circus, something no one has yet had the nerve to try. Yet year-after-year Davis organizes and brings off one of the most extensive programs on the Western scene.
During most daytime hours of the NCS, there are six to ten events going on. Cowboy poetry in one area. Storytelling in another. Historical papers in another venue. Cowboy music on the outdoor stage or one of the other areas. Horseshoeing demonstrations. Chuckwagon cookoffs. And on and on the list goes. All of it under the professional guidance and loving eye of Alvin Davis and his wife, Barbara.
The NCS web page is: http://www.cowboy.org
Alvin's e-mail address is: adavis@cowboy.org
Gail Davis
(Deceased)
Gail Davis, actress, was born as Betty Jeanne Grayson on October 5, 1925 in Little Rock, AR.
It was none other than Gene Autry who discovered the beautiful and talented Ms. Grayson. He featured her, with the new name of "Gail Davis," in some 20 of his own movies. And then she appeared in some 30 episodes of the "Gene Autry Show" on TV. She also performed in Gene's traveling rode show as well.
Autry saw how audiences responded to Davis, so he gave her a series of her own--produced by his own company, of course. So it was that in 1954 Gail Davis began starring in the "Annie Oakley" TV Western series. At only 5'2" and 95 pounds, she was an experienced horseman and an expert marksman with a rifle or pistol. Her horse's name was "Target".
Gail Davis also appeared in episodes of such TV Westerns as "The Lone Ranger," "The Cisco Kid" and "Death Valley Days".
She also appeared in some 32 movies. Her Western credits included "Alias Jesse James (1959), "Goldtown Ghost Riders" (1953), "Pack Train" (1953), "Winning of the West" (1953), "The Old West" (1952), "Blue Canadian Rockies" (1952), "Wagon Team," (1952), "The Overland Telegraph" (1951), "Yukon Manhunt" (1951), "Valley of Fire" (1951), "Silver Canyon" (1951), "Texans Never Cry" (1951), "Cow Town" (1950), "Indian Territory" (1950), "West of Wyoming" (1950), "Trail of the Rustlers" (1950), "The Far Frontier" (1949), "Frontier Investigator" (1949), "Sons of New Mexico" (1949), "South of Death Valley" (1949), "Brand of Fear" (1949), "Law of the Golden West" (1949) and "Death Valley Gunfighter" (1949).
Gail Davis died of cancer on March 15, 1997 in Los Angeles. Her remains are in Forest Lawn Cemetery (Hollywood Hills; Abiding Love, lot 4632, space 1B) in Los Angeles, CA.
CLICK HERE to go to a web site dedicated to the TV show, "Annie Oakley".
CLICK HERE to see the complete filmography of Gail Davis.
Jim Davis
(Deceased)
Jim Davis, actor, was born as Marlin Davis on August 26, 1915 in Edgerton, MO. He attended William Jewell College in Liberty, MO. He dropped out to pursue a variety of jobs, including working in a circus rigging tents. He got into sales, where his impressive looks--- tall and handsome ---and his uniquely raspy voice worked to his advantage. He was promoted to a job in California. And that is where a good salesman became a great actor.Jim Davis was a natural as a tough guy in Western movies, and he made dozens of them during his career. However, no doubt he will always be remembered as patriarch "Jock Ewing" in the TV series "Dallas"(1978 - 1981). His other Western TV credits include appearances on "Gunsmoke," "Kung Fu," " The Virginian," " Cimarron Strip,"" Branded, " "Rawhide," "Wagon Train," " Gunslinger," "The Tall Man," "Laramie," Yancy Derringer" and "Cowboy G-Men".
Jim Davis appeared in some 100 movies dating from 1942 to 1980. Some of his Western credits include "The Fabulous Texan" (1947), "Red Stallion in the Rockies" (1949), "The Cariboo Trail" (1950), "Silver Canyon" (1951), "The Big Sky" (1952), "Ride the Man Down" (1953), "Outlaw's Dauther" (1954), "Last of the Desperados" (1955), "The Wild Dakotas" (1956), "The Restless Breed" (1957), "Toughest Gun in Tombstone" (1958), "Alias Jesse James" (1959), "Noose for a Gunman" (1960), "The Gambler Wore a Gun" (1961), "Jesse James Meets Frankenstein's Daughter" (1966), "Fort Utah" (1967), "Rio Lobo" (1970), "Big Jake" (1971), "One Little Indian" (1973) and "Comes a Horseman" (1978).
He died on April 26, 1981 from complications following surgery for a perforated ulcer. He was buried at Forest Lawn Cemetery (Great Mausoleum, Iris Terrace, niche 24961) in Glendale, CA.
Jimmie Davis
(Deceased)
Jimmie Davis, entertainer and politician, was born in Beech Grove, Louisiana in about 1902. His father was a poor sharecropper with 11 children crammed into a two-room house. He grew up tough, plowing with a mule and picking cotton by hand.However, Jimmie Davis had an ear for music. He somehow scrapped up enough money to go to college, and stayed there by singing for donations on crooning on street corners. He graduated from college and began teaching, but augmented his small salary by singing on the side.
He started off singing blues in a trio composed of himself and two black musicians. Jimmie Davis and his group were hot enough to win a recording contract with RCA Victor in 1929.
During the 1930's he fronted an integrated band, something rare enough in the North but something unheard of in the South. One observer of his music during that time called him "one of the blackest-sounding white men I've ever heard."
He really made people sit up and take notice when his song "Nobody's Darling But Mine" became popular. By the time he was through, he would write over 400 songs and record some 60 albums.
Still, he wasn't making the kind of money he wanted. And he was smart enough to know he had to do something different. So he decided to enter politics. He used his corn-pone music and humor to campaign for and win the job of court clerk in Shreveport. And from there he was elected to the Louisiana Public Service Commission.
He was gaining a firm political base and a wide following of music fans. He parlayed his natural charm and his musical ability to become Governor of Louisiana in 1944 and served until 1948. Then he served a second term from 1960-1964, during which he continued his promotion of segregation with "separate and equal facilities".
He first made the record charts with "Is It Too Late Now?" That song made it all the way to # 3 in 1944. The next year, while also serving as Governor, he had his first and only #1 hit: "There's A Blue Moon Over My Shoulder". That song stayed on top for 18 weeks. He had three more singles that made the top five. And his song, "Where The Old Red River Flows," came in at # 15 as his last chart appearance in 1962.
Jimmie Davis is a member of the Country Music Hall of Fame, the Gospel Music Hall of Fame and the Louisiana Hall of Fame.
Jimmie Davis first recorded "You Are My Sunshine" in 1931, but he was disenchanted with the result that he would not release it. He waited an amazing eight years to try recording it, again, and the effort netted him a fortune as it became a world-wide hit still widely known and perfomed today.
Our friend Jim Bob Tinsley often related the story of how he was in the Army in Malta during World War II. He was sitting behind a tent singing and playing his guitar when who should stop by but England's Prime Minister Winston Churchhill. Mr. Churchill listened to his song and applauded when it was over and then made a personal request: "Do you know 'You Are My Sunshine'". He did, of course, and performed it for Mr. Churchhill and his entourage.
Gene Autry and Gov. Jimmie DavisJimmie Davis even tried his hand at acting. He was in four movies: "Strictly In The Groove," "Frontier Fury," "Louisiana," and "Square Dance Katy."
Jimmie Davis stayed very active until past 100. He died at the age of 101 on Sunday, Nov. 5, 2000.
Kenneth W. Davis
Kenneth W. Davis is a professor of English at Texas Tech University, where he teaches courses on the lore of the West. His articles have appeared in many literary magazines such as Southwestern American Literature,and 1987 Yearbook of the West Texas Historical Association.
Ossie Davis
Ossie Davis, actor, was born as Raiford Chatman Davis on Dec. 18, 1917, in Cogdell, Georgia. He attended Howard University from 1935 to 1939. He dropped out of school to become an actor with the Rose McClendon Players in Harlem.
On December 9, 1948, he married a fellow actress, Ruby Dee, who would later star in some of his plays.
He was a leading activist in the civil rights era. He joined Martin Luther King , Jr. in his crusade for jobs and freedom. He also helped raise money for the Freedom Riders who had been arrested in the South for violating segregation laws. Even in times of sorrow, Davis found time for the causes he loved best. He eulogized Martin Luther King, Jr. and later Malcolm X at their funerals. In his words, "The profoundest commitment possible to a black creator in this country today--beyond all creeds, crafts, classes and ideologies whatsoever--is to bring before his people the scent of freedom."
On May 12, 1973 Ozzie Davis was granted an honorary degree (Doctor of Humanities) from Howard University, the school which he had dropped out of way back in 1939.
His Western movie credits include "The Scalphunters" (1968) and "Sam Whiskey" (1969). His TV Western credits include guest appearances on "Gunsmoke" and on "Bonanza".
CLICK HERE to see Ossie Davis's complete filmography.
Ronald L. Davis
Ronald L. Davis won a Spur Award from the Western Writers of America at their convention in 1999 for his book, Duke: The Life and Image of John Wayne. It was judged best in the category of "Best Western Nonfiction--Biography".
Wayne Davis
Wayne Davis, author, was born in Virginia and reared in New Mexico on a ranch near Carlsbad. He married and worked in the underground potash mines to make a living. Eventually he began managing health clubs. That's what he was doing in Nacogdoches, Texas when one of his customers--prolific Western writer Joe Lansdale--encouraged his to try his hand at writing about the West he loved.
His first novel, JOHN STONE AND THE CHOCTAW KID (M. Evans & Co.) was published in late 1992. And in 1993 at the convention of the Western Writers of America he received the "Medicine Pipe Award" as the best first-time novel.
This listing is far from complete and may contain errors.
Therefore, all Western entertainers and/or their agents
are requested to submit recommended changes by
contacting Stan Paregien through his e-mail address.
© 2003 by Stan Paregien, Sr.
