Born in Mount Vernon, Faulkner County, Arkansas, to James Ambrose and Mary Ella Henderson Davis. His mother died when he was about 15 months old and he was raised by older sisters and brothers. He joined the U.S. Army Air Corp during WWII and was stationed at Edwards Air Base in Stockton, California. Married Valta Mae Shock, daughter of Rufus Andrew and Myrtle Isabell Gash Shock, on Feb. 14, 1942 in Reno, Nevada. Three children: Carol Jean, Lyle Edward, and Erwin Lee. Moved to Roswell, New Mexico, in 1945, and after an honorable discharge from the Army Air Corp, he worked for New Mexico Power and Light in Roswell. In 1949, he moved his family to a 40-acre farm 1.5 miles east of Enola, Arkansas. He could not make a living farming 40 acres, and in 1952 he went to work for the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers as Power Plant Operator at Bull Shoals Dam west of Mountain Home, Arkanas. From there, he transferred to Norfork Dam, Table Rock Dam, & finally to Greers Ferry Dam, where he retired. One year after Valta's death, in 1974, he married Alberta Shappley from Hattisburg, Mississippi. He moved to Rose Bud, White County, Arkansas, in 1983, and lived out his life there. He loved attending church, squirrel and deer hunting, and tending his property. He loved his children and grandchildren and drove hundreds of miles to visit them as often as possible. He was inflicted with senile dementia at the age of 83, and after two years of struggle with SD, died in the Geriatric Center at the Veteran's Administration Hospital in North Little Rock, Pulaski County, Arkansas, about 4:00 a.m. on December 4, 1999. He was buried in Heffington Cemetery, Faulkner County, Arkansas, on Peral Harbor Day, December 7, 1999. He was laid to rest beside his wife, Valta Mae Shock Davis, the mother of his three children.