Frances Berry Johnson Davis
October 27, 1923—March 2, 2022
Formerly of Highland Falls
Frances Berry Johnson Davis died of pneumonia on March 2, 2022 in Mesa, Arizona at age 98. She was born October 27, 1923 in Highland Falls, NY, the daughter of Loretta Berry Johnson and Arturo Laurence Johnson who was part of the Tenth Cavalry Regiment, stationed at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point at that time.
She graduated from Highland Falls H.S. and married Ernest James Davis, Jr. on June 6, 1945. He was the tenth African American graduate of West Point and a Tuskegee Airman. She was a lifetime member of the Tuskegee Airmen both in the East Coast Chapter and the Archer Ragsdale Arizona Chapter of the Tuskegee Airmen Incorporated.
Frances was a homemaker during her married life and engaged in many civic activities, providing leadership in scout troops and the Girls’ Friendly Society. She was a committed and active Episcopalian and was a president of the Diocese of Washington, DC Episcopal Church Women. She and her husband were docents at the Washington National Cathedral. Before her illness, she faithfully attended ECW meetings at the Church of the Transfiguration in Mesa, where she had been a congregant since 2005.
To show her love for Highland Falls and the Episcopal Church of the Holy Innocents there, Frances donated the replacement cost of the church’s pipe organ in 2014.
She was predeceased by her husband and her older son Ernest III, and is survived by her daughter, Dolly, and younger son, Robert. Survivors also include her granddaughter, Kathryn and grandson, Stephen, as well as great grandchildren, a great great grandchild and numerous nieces, nephews, grandnieces/nephews and myriad cousins. She was greatly loved and will be greatly missed. Her funeral service will be at the Episcopal Church of the Transfiguration in Mesa, AZ, on Wednesday, May 11, 2022 at 11 am. Her ashes will be interred with her husband at Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, VA.