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CONCURRENT RESOLUTION
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WHEREAS, In the year 1929, the era of the "Roaring 20s" came |
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to a sudden end, the stock market crashed, and the country slid into |
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"The Big Depression"; and |
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WHEREAS, James Alford Davis entered this world on November |
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14, 1929, the first son of Alford Joseph Davis and Victoria Louise |
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Wilhelm Davis; he lived on "The Farm" at the Fritz Wilhelm ranch in |
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northwest Menard County until the fourth grade, when the family |
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moved to the big city and place of his birth, Menard, Texas; and |
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WHEREAS, Mr. Davis graduated from Lutheran Concordia |
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College, located in Austin, in the year 1948; it was at Concordia |
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that he met his father figure and mentor, George John Beto, a.k.a. |
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"Walking George," who was a professor and housemaster; and |
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WHEREAS, In 1952, Mr. Davis graduated from the University of |
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Houston with a bachelor's degree in business administration and, |
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with a strong recommendation from the president of the United |
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States of America, he joined the United States Army; and |
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WHEREAS, Mr. Davis entered the Bates School of Law at the |
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University of Houston in 1956, and five years later he successfully |
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passed the bar exam and was authorized to practice law in the State |
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of Texas; also in 1956, he and Nancy Helen Hall were joined in holy |
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matrimony, and as of this date, they have enjoyed 53 years of wedded |
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bliss; as Pappy likes to say, "1956 was a busy year--got married, |
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got a job, started law school, and dropped my first kid"; and |
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WHEREAS, The union between James Alford Davis and Nancy Helen |
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Hall produced five children--William Keith Davis, in 1956, Charles |
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Melvin Davis, 1957, John Edward Davis, 1960, Victoria Joanne Davis |
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Starr, 1960, and Christopher Lee Davis, 1963; and |
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WHEREAS, In the mid-1960s, Mr. Davis moved his family to |
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Baton Rouge, Louisiana, where he worked on the Capline Pipeline |
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Project; the family returned to Houston in 1968, and Mr. Davis set |
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up his office downtown, at Shell Plaza Two; and |
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WHEREAS, In 1991, after 35 years of service, he retired from |
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Shell Pipeline, where he was responsible for the company's |
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substantial land-related acquisition projects; that same year, he |
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and his wife moved back to Menard, and since then he has devoted his |
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time to raising goats, sheep, cows, and grandkids at the Dry Creek |
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Ranch; and |
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WHEREAS, James Alford Davis is celebrating his 80th birthday |
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in 2009 with family and lifelong friends at the Menard Country Club |
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on the San Saba River; this self-made man has been a successful |
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husband, father, grandfather, lawyer, rancher, a voracious reader |
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of history, a mentor to many, and the author of In the Eye of a |
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Hurricane and In From the Cold, and Mr. Davis wants all to remember |
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that "It didn't just happen"; now, therefore, be it |
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RESOLVED, That the 81st Legislature of the State of Texas |
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hereby congratulate James Alford Davis on his 80th birthday and |
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recognize that, after weathering many life storms and experiencing |
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the cold on levels unknown to most men, Mr. Davis has successfully |
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emerged from the eye of the storm and has finally come in from the |
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cold; and, be it further |
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RESOLVED, That an official copy of this resolution be |
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prepared for Mr. Davis as an expression of high regard by the Texas |
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House of Representatives and Senate. |