Los Angeles County
Biographies
OPAL
HART DAVIS
Opal
Hart Davis’ love for Rosemead and her love for young people are irrepressible
and find wonderful expression in both of her present major undertakings,
teaching as a substitute of many years’ standing in the El Monte Union High
School District, and collecting Rosemead historical data. Herself impressed with what has been
accomplished since the first pioneer settled in Rosemead about 1859, Mrs. Davis
is chairman of the seven member Rosemead Historical Committee, which works
almost entirely from first sources; that is, from early issues of the Rosemead
Review, minutes of meetings or historians’ reports – including those of the
Woman’s Club, the Savannah Parent-Teachers’ Association from 1914 to 1923, and
the Boy Scout mother’s auxiliary from 1927 to 1943 – and personal interviews
with older residents and the descendants of early settlers. Her aim is to preserve the original documents
for posterity, at the same time organizing and compiling the information to
make it available through the library for students’ research, and to give the
youngsters of Rosemead “something to shoot at,” the realization of what has
been accomplished and of what dedicated people can achieve.
Wife
and mother in an uncommonly gifted family intellectually – there are two
doctorates in plant science, a medical doctor, and two candidates for
doctorates in science, among husband, wife, two sons and one daughter – Mrs.
Davis came to Rosemead with her husband in 1926, shortly after their marriage,
and has been collecting material on the history of Rosemead over a period of
thirty-seven years; she was appointed chairman of the Rosemead Historical
Committee by the city council in 1960.
A
native of Indiana, Mrs. Davis was born on October 19, 1897, in her father’s
home town of Portland, and is the only living child of her parents. Her father, William A. Hart, an attorney, was
district attorney in Jay County, Indiana, and later as a farmer did fertilizer
research for Purdue University; he passed away in 1939. Her mother, Luanna
(Brandon) Hart of Franklin, Ohio, was a teacher; she died in 1925. Opal Hart Davis was educated at New Mt.
Pleasant Elementary and I. P. Gray High School near Portland, Indiana, at Earlham
College in Richmond, Indiana, where she received her Bachelor of Arts degree in
1920, the University of Chicago, where she received her Master of Arts degree
in 1924, and was given a fellowship, as was her husband, to the Boyce Thompson
Institute at Yonkers, New York, where she did the research for her Doctor of
Philosophy degree in plant physiology received in 1925 from the University of
Chicago.
Before
coming to Rosemead, Mrs. Davis taught for three years in Jay County, Indiana,
rural schools, and was high school teacher and vice principal for three years
at I. P. Gray High School near Portland.
While her children were growing up, Mrs. Davis was interested in various
community activities over a period of twenty years before returning to teaching
as a substitute in 1945, in Alhambra School District for three years and in the
El Monte Union High School District since 1948.
As long as there are young people around to be taught, Mrs. Davis cannot
resist teaching them.
Mrs.
Davis is an active member of the Rosemead Coordinating Council and of the
Rosemead Youth Association, and Mr. and Mrs. Davis are active members of the
Rosemead Chamber of Commerce for which they did a great deal of work, including
the collection of information on incorporation and the circulating of petitions
in 1953, 1954, 1957, and 1959 for the incorporation of Rosemead, a task of some
magnitude. Mrs. Davis is a member of the
Boy Scout Mothers’ Auxiliary in Rosemead and has been active in the Savannah
and Muscatel School Parent-Teacher Association, and a member of the Rosemead
High School Parent-Teachers’ Association.
She has also served as substitute librarian in Rosemead since 1941.
On
September 16, 1923, at New Mt. Pleasant, near Portland, Indiana, the former
Miss Opal Hart was married to Ward B. Davis, who was born on October 24, 1893,
in Fortville, Indiana, fifth child in a family of three boys and three
girls. Of these, four are still
living. In his father’s family there
were five brothers and one sister, all musically talented, and all but one of
whom lived past the age of ninety. His
aunt is still living at ninety-two; one uncle is one hundred two. Mr. Davis received his Master of Science degree
from the University of Chicago in 1923, and his doctorate in plant physiology
in 1924. After thirty-four years in the
field of plant biochemistry, Mr. Davis retired in 1958, having been a research
chemist for the United States Department of Agriculture from 1925 to 1958. He had also taught one year of grade school,
two years of high school, and one year at the University of Chicago. He is currently president of the Southern
California Botanists and served as a Boy Scout Committeeman in Rosemead from
1945-1951. Mr. Davis served in the
United States Army in 1918-1919, spending fourteen months overseas. One brother, Ben, was killed in action
October 10, 1918.
Members
of the Alhambra Friends Community Church, Mr. and Mrs. Davis joined in 1926
when it was known as Ramona Park Friends Church, and both teach in the Sunday
School, Mrs. Davis having taught in the beginner’s department for twenty-eight
years. She is also active in aid and
missionary work and expediter of materials and activities for children in the
church. Both Mr. and Mrs. Davis try to
cooperate as much as possible in all of the activities of the church and the
community.
The
Davises’ daughter, Mrs. Orval (Florence) Miller of
Nuevo, California, a medical doctor, is now the school doctor for thirteen
schools in Corona. She is a graduate of
Savannah School and Muscatel School, both in Rosemead, of El Monte High School,
where she was active in the band, of Whittier College, and of the University of
Southern California Medical School. Dr.
Miller and her husband, an appraiser, are the parents to two young children, Luanna and Brian.
William Stanley Davis attended the same school as his sister and
brother, Ben, graduated from Whittier College, spent four years as an officer
in the United States Navy, and is now working for his doctorate in plant
genetics at the University of California at Los Angeles. His wife is the former Dianne Carlson of
Downey. Ward Ben Davis is a graduate of
the California Institute of Technology, is working for his doctorate in
biochemistry at the University of Southern California where he received a
National Science Foundation Fellowship in 1959-1960, and is also teaching at
Whittier College. He and his wife, the
former Mary Montgomery of Brawley, are the parents of a small daughter, Heather
Lee
Collecting
historical data for Rosemead and working with youth qualify as the most
absorbing of hobbies for Opal Hart Davis.
Transcribed
by V. Gerald Iaquinta.
Source: Historical Volume &
Reference Works Including Alhambra, Monterey Park, Rosemead, San Gabriel &
Temple City, by Robert P. Studer, Pages 452-454,
Historical Publ., Los Angeles, California.
1962.
© 2013 V.
Gerald Iaquinta.
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