Page 8 - Florida Sentinel 6-24-22

Feature
Daughter Of Lee Davis Preserves His Legacy In Book
BY GWEN HAYES Sentinel Editor
Those in the younger generation have no idea who Lee Davis was, other than knowing about the Lee Davis Community Resource Center. His daughter, Ms. Bettye Davis, wants to change that by preserving his legacy in a book – My Father: Lee Davis. The book is an updated, 2nd pub- lishing of the book Ms. Davis published in the mid 1990s.
It was around 1993 when Ms. Davis was approached by Mrs. Chloe Coney, as plans were underway to build the then-named Neighborhood Service Cen- ter. There were plans to name the building after Lee Davis and information was
MS. BETTYE DAVIS
needed on him to take to Washington, D. C., to follow the process of getting the building named in his honor.
Having so much infor- mation and photos of her parents – Lee and Ethel
The Book Cover
first Black millionaire by a local newspaper, donated land in 1951 to Hillsborough County on Potter St. and 28th Ave., where the first Lee Davis Clinic was housed.
His motto was, “It’s not how you look, but how you feel.” That led to the need for a health clinic in East Tampa. “My father wanted everybody healthy. He knew that residents in East Tampa had to struggle to get downtown for healthcare. During those times, there were no guarantees that they would even get seen, even after being there all day,” Ms. Davis said.
A businessman, Davis acquired a great deal of land. He even had busi- nesses in Florence Villa, FL. In Tampa, he built a shop- ping center on 22th St. with several shops and a gas sta- tion at 22nd St. and 26th Ave.
As Ms. Davis shares her father’s legacy with her grandchildren and great- grandchildren, she wants Tampa’s younger commu- nity to be aware of his legacy in Tampa.
“Times have changed and it’s hard to get the younger generation inter- ested in books. This is one book that has all kinds of in- formation of how he helped the community and people – sending kids to college, purchased the first bus for Middleton High School. I refer to him as the “Bridge Builder,” from a poem in the book.”
Ms. Davis is a retired Certified Dula, who enjoys traveling (COVID has slowed her down). She taught school for a brief pe- riod, but spent 18 years at University Community Hos- pital as a Lab Tech.
The mother of 2 (her son died in 1996), is the grand- mother of 4 and great- grandmother of 6.
Mr. Davis died in Jan- uary, 1981. He was 87 years old.
The book, My Father: Lee Davis is available for $25 plus tax at Sula Too Publishing, 1421 Tampa Park Plaza, Tampa (33605), or contact sulatroollc@- gmail.com.
Davis – it did not take Ms. Davis long to pull the needed information to- gether to share in book form. At that time she had about 12 books published to share.
Then she met Ms. Er- sula K. Odom, owner of Sula Too Publishing. In March, 2022, the second publishing was released
through Sula Too Publish- ing. Ms. Odom assisted with adding more informa- tion and photos to continue the Lee Davis story. In the book’s Acknowledgements, Ms. Davis recognizes State Senator James T. Hargrett, Jr. and others in their efforts to keep her father’s dream alive.
Davis, called Florida’s
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