Noll Davis Jr. was the kind of man who made a big impression.
“Noll was quite the character,” said Greenwood Mayor Carolyn McAdams, who was a fellow parishioner at the Episcopal Church of the Nativity. “When you were in Noll’s presence, you recognized it.”
Noll Perkins Davis Jr., 89, died this morning at Indywood Glen Personal Care Home of Greenwood.
Funeral arrangements are being handled by Wilson and Knight Funeral Home of Greenwood.
McAdams said Mr. Davis was a pillar not only of the church but of the city of Greenwood.
“He is going to be so, so missed by all of us. He was a great man,” she said.
Billy Walker, a Greenwood accountant, said his longtime friend was known for his plain speaking.
“He spoke what he felt. If you asked him, he’d tell you,” Walker said.
Loyalty and integrity were principles by which Mr. Davis lived his life, Walker said.
“He was an honest person. Very straightforward. He’d do anything for his friends,” Walker said.
“Noll and I go back many, many years,” said retired Greenwood businessman Bob Provine.
The men got to know each other by attending Nativity’s early Sunday service, which begins at 8 a.m.
Provine said the group of about 20 early risers formed “a little clique” and Mr. Davis was front and center.
“He was a straightforward man. No B.S. He told you what he thought, but he could be a gentleman at the same time,” Provine said.
Mr. Davis knew a lot about Greenwood’s history and the church’s history as well.
In later years, Provine and Mr. Davis would visit the residents of Indywood Glen before Mr. Davis became a resident there.
“We would visit Indywood every Sunday. That was kind of our Sunday School. He always said that meant a lot to him,” Provine said.
He served, McAdams said, with great enthusiasm in almost every capacity of parish life at the Episcopal Church, including time as a vestry member and junior warden.
Mr. Davis was born to Noll P. Davis Sr. and Julia O’Neal Davis on Sept. 8, 1925, in the “Big Level” community of Stone County.
He attended school in Yazoo City and graduated from University High School in Oxford in 1943.
During the summer of 1942, while still in high school, Mr. Davis worked on the construction of the Greenwood Army Air Field. His work began there on June 4, 1942, at the rate of 45 cents per hour and continued for seven days a week for 87 consecutive days.
Following high school graduation, Mr. Davis enlisted in the U.S. Army. He was sent to Fort Benning, Georgia, for basic training.
After taking engineering courses at North Carolina State University, Mr. Davis sailed with the 87th Infantry to England.
While with his unit, which was fighting in the Alsace Lorraine region of France, he was injured and remanded to military hospitals. He was honorably discharged in July 1945.
In the fall of 1945, Mr. Davis enrolled at Mississippi State University, where he was elected president of Sigma Alpha Epsilon Fraternity. He earned memberships in the Phi Eta Sigma, Blue Key and Omicron Delta Kappa honor societies.
Upon graduating with a degree in agriculture, Mr. Davis went to work for the Delta Branch Experiment Station in Stoneville, where he specialized in weed control and cotton physiology.
In 1949, Mr. Davis joined his father’s Greenwood-based company, All State Fertilizer, and made Greenwood his home. He purchased the company outright in 1957 and operated it until 2007.
Mr. Davis was active in the community as well.
He was a longtime member of the Greenwood Rotary Club and later the Greenwood Kiwanis Club.
Mr. Davis served as a director of Leflore Bank & Trust Co. and served on the advisory boards of Deposit Guaranty National Bank, AmSouth Bank and Greenwood Utilities.
He was preceded in death by his wife, Alice Critz Davis.
Mr. Davis is survived by a daughter, Jenny Payne Scott.
• Contact Bob Darden at 581-7239 or bdarden@gwcommonwealth.com.
