Obituary - Helen Ray Davis

Helen Ray Davis, departed this earth peacefully in Henrico, Virginia, on July 21, 2021, at the age of 96.

Helen is survived by her five daughters, Sherrill Donahoe (David), Karen Bell, Vicki Davis, Jami Blanning (Ralph), and Lori Cook (Jeff); sister, Bobbie Kasson; eleven grandchildren; and twenty-five great-grandchildren. She was preceded in death by her husband, Sterling H. Davis and great grandson, Henry Sterling Cook.

Helen was born on August 16, 1924, in Sharon , Mississippi , to Eola Martin Ray and Arthur Ray. She graduated from Farmhaven High School in 1941, after which she worked as a secretary/reporter for Ingalls Shipyard in Pascagoula , Mississippi , during the first years of World War II. She loved her job, and it was at this time that she met her future husband, stationed as an Army Air Corps pilot on the Gulf Coast. They married in 1943, and during their fifty-six years of marriage, they lived in eleven states, finally settling in Henrico County, Virginia, in 1972.

Helen loved children, and she carried this love to the workplace when she founded and managed daycare centers for over thirty years. She was accomplished at sewing and rug-hooking, and inspired by her legendary teacher, Mr. L.W. Owens, Helen’s lifelong composition of written and oral narratives brought to life her memorable years growing up on a farm during the Great Depression, the War Years, and her years of living and traveling throughout the United States with husband and kids.

Helen was the proverbial optimist and loved family, friends, reading, genealogy, politics, and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. Her home was graciously opened to family and friends, who remember her as cheerful, kind, gentle, loving, loyal, hardworking, resolute, patient, and resilient.

Funeral services will be held 11:00 a.m. Monday, July 26 at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, 2500 Pump Road, Henrico, Virginia 23233, with interment to follow in Greenwood Memorial Gardens. The family will receive friends 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. Sunday at the West Chapel of Bennett Funeral Home, 11020 West Broad Street Road, Glen Allen, Virginia. In lieu of flowers, please send donations to the American Brain Foundation or to a medical foundation of your choice. The family would like to thank Jami Davis Blanning and Jamie Daniel Blanning for their ceaseless care during Helen’s last years of life.