Roy Eugene Davis, died April 18, 2024 at Sentara RMH Medical Center, Harrisonburg, Virginia. Roy Gene was born May 30, 1940 to Grace Walker Townsend and Harold Russell Davis, at 202 Hill Avenue, in Elkton, Virginia, the house having been purchased by his grandfather, Hiram Frank Davis in the 1920s; predeceased by brother, Harold Ray in November 1945. The family home in Elkton was located where Elk Run is crossed by the Spotswood Trail. The family house of worship was the Elk Run Church, though in his organized religion Roy Gene was later active in the leadership of a mission church at Solsburg. He is Elkton High Class of 1958, and served as a Town Council Member, and two-term Mayor of Elkton. His policies were conservative, forever concerned about waste, fraud, and abuse in local government. In the 1970s, he led an unsuccessful grass-roots effort to prevent Elkton school children having to leave the town to gain their education. He started his work life as a janitor at Dupont Chemical in the 1950s, gained his electrician’s license, and later retired from Merck.

Surviving Roy Gene is his loving and loyal wife of 65 years, Rebecca “Jane” Frazier Davis of Elkton, Virginia. Jane is the daughter of Emma Rebecca Jenkins and James Mordecai Frazier. Living children include David Franklin Davis (Dan Meyer) of Hagerstown, Maryland and Cathy Davis of Elkton, Virginia, as well as Roy Eugene Davis, Jr. of Staunton, Virginia. The infant child starting the Davis family died at birth in 1959 and is unnamed and buried in the Elk Run Cemetery, where Roy Gene will join her with the rest of the family. Grandchildren include Cameron Frazier Biller (Gabriela Archer) of Harrisonburg, Virginia; Jordan Townsend Biller (Kattie Cave) of Stanardsville, Virginia; and the children of Roy, Jr., whereabouts unknown.

Cathy is the representative of the Roy Gene family remaining in Elkton, with Jane now a resident at Brookdale Assisted Living in Harrisonburg. The Davises are old to Virginia, the marriage of Roy Gene’s parents having brought together two old lines of Tidewater and Shenandoah valley families. His paternal great-grandfather was Iron Monger John Barton Davis and is buried at the Koontz Family Cemetery in Verbena, Virginia. Through his maternal grandfather, Charles C. Townsend of Elkton, Roy Gene descends from the Mayflower families and founders of Yale College and Guildford, Connecticut, as well as pirates on the Long Island Sound; through his mother, Grace, he descends from the Carter, Lee, and Henry families of Virginia, as well as pirates on the Chesapeake Bay. Many will remember Roy’s trips organized through Roy Davis Tours.