Early County GaArchives Obituaries.....Estelle, Virginia Webb Davis May 16 2003 ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/ga/gafiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Sue Webb southernroots@cfl.rr.com October 17, 2003, 10:19 pm Orlando Sentinel May 19, 2003 Davis, Estelle Virginia Webb, age 97 of Winter Garden. Born in Damascus, Georgia, December 10, 1905. She moved with her father, John B. Webb and mother, Clifford Poole Webb to Winter Garden in 1920 and lived there until 1998 when she moved to Eustis. In early years she worked for Roper Bros. Packing House and later for Tibbals Drug Store, both in Winter Garden. She was a member of the Eastern Star, Winter Garden Chapter. She is predeceased by her husband, Joseph Lee, her son-in-law, Harold G. McDonald and her great granddaughter Jennifer Grantham. She is survived by her sons, Dick (Mary) of Port Canaveral and Johnnie (Jan) of Orlando, daughters Hilda (Gerald) Ayers, Jo Ann (J.D.) Webb, and Bonnie McDonald, all of Tavares, ten grandchildren, and 20 great grandchildren. Visitation Monday, May 19, 2003 from 1-2:30PM. Services Monday, at 2:30PM at the Winter Garden Chapel. Interment will follow at Winter Garden Cemetery. Memorial donations to American Cancer Society. Baldwin-Fairchild Funeral Home, Winter Garden Chapel. Additional memorial story in the same newspaper the same day: Estelle Davis had fond memories of life in rural Winter Garden - When Estelle Davis met a car on her way into Orlando from Winter Garden, she had to pull over to the side of the road to let the other car pass. In the 1930's, only a one-way road connected the sleepy town of grove workers and ranchers with Orlando. Davis, 97, who missed those days of listening to Amos 'n' Andy on the radio while rocking on the front porch swing, died Friday in Mount Dora of heart failure. Davis took part in many of the idyllic pastimes of rural Central Florida. After supper on Saturday nights, Davis' husband, Joseph, a carpenter, would drive a half block and park the car on Plant Street. The men would gather at the barbershop, the women would stroll from car to car and chat with the other moms, and children would play in the street. "it was a wonderful, innocent time," said Jo Anne Webb, 71, of Tavares. Davis spent about 30 years packing oranges for the Roper family, one of the earliest and most influential citrus growers in West Orange County. In 1955, she began working as a clerk at Tibbals Rexall Drug Store, an old-fashioned soda fountain, where milkshakes could be purchased for a dime. The family's life was far from easy, Davis, the second oldest of 13 children, quit school after eight grade to pick cotton on Georgia Farms. "in those days, if you were tan, that meant you were very, very poor," said daughter Hilda Ayers of Tavares. "So she would pick cotton in long sleeves and wide-brimmed hats to keep from getting tan." She met Joseph soon after moving to Winter Garden in 1920. During the hard times in Florida that arrived with the Great Depression, Davis did everything she could to stretch a dollar - canning vegetables picked on local farms, using old flour sacks to make clothes for her five children and reserving fancy things - such as sweet tea - for Sundays. Davis' will was challenged again in 1955, when Joseph died of cancer, leaving her to provide for 14-year-old twins and three other children. "That's when she stopped packing fruit." Webb said. "She knew she had to get a full-time job, so she gritted her teeth. I still don't know how she managed." Davis was a member of Daniels Road Church of Christ and the Winter Garden chapter of the Eastern Star. In retirement, she visited her brothers and sisters, one of whom lived in Illinois. "When she changed planes in Chicago, I remember her talking about how big the airport was," Webb said. "She was very southern, quite gentle and giving." Additional Comments: Although my grandmother, Estelle Webb Davis, lived most of her life in Central Florida, she visited Early county, the place of her birth often to see her much loved parents and siblings. My grandfather, Joseph Lee Davis was born and raised just across the river in Henry County Alabama. She was a remakable woman and I miss her, we all do. Her grandparents were Webb's, Westbrook's, Poole's and Temple's all of Early County. Her parents were John Bariom Webb and Clifford Clinton Poole. Her siblings were L.C. Webb, Gary Alton Webb, J.B. Webb, Homer 'Bud' Raymond Webb, Jewel Mytrice Webb, Idus 'Jimmy' Felder Webb, Iva Lucille Webb, Milton 'T-Bud' Harvey Webb, Dixie Dahlia Webb, Clifford David Webb and Joe Melvin Webb. She outlived them all. This file has been created by a form at http://www.poppet.org/gafiles/ File size: 4.9 Kb