Obit of Davis, Hazel - Greer County, Oklahoma Submitted by: Gene Phillips 10 Apr 2011 Return to Greer County Archives: http://www.usgwarchives.net/ok/greer/greer.htm ===================================================================== USGENWEB NOTICE Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm ===================================================================== ::NOT LISTED Santa Rosa Press Democrat Published on March 2, 2006 From her youth as a migrant farmworker to her semi-retirement running Buddy's Christmas Tree Farm in Sebastopol, Hazel Davis remained driven to take on demanding, physical labor. "She used a machete to prune those trees and wore a heavy backpack when she was spraying for weeds," said Sylvann Nicholas, recalling her mother's work among the Douglas firs and other evergreens. "She did a lot of it in the 1980s and 1990s when she was in her 70s and 80s." Davis, an 80-year west Sonoma County resident, died Sunday of heart failure at her daughter's Sebastopol home. She was 93. She was born Feb. 19, 1913, in Mangum, Okla., the oldest of 10 children of Charles and Lois Rogers. At 12, she left Oklahoma, first living in Oregon then moving to Graton, where her father operated a fruit stand on Highway 116. The Rogers family also picked cotton and other Central Valley crops. One season, when their 17-year-old daughter, an Analy High School graduate, harvested cotton in Madera, her Sebastopol sweetheart, Gilbert Davis, came to ask permission to marry her. Had Charles Rogers refused the suitor's request, "My dad ... planned to go to Reno," the Davises' daughter said, recalling one of her mom's favorite stories. The Davises wed that year, 1930, in Madera. Nicknamed "Buddy" by her grandson, Gary, Davis worked in local canneries and orchards. Though she could outpick most laborers, Davis also -- concealed by a cherry tree's branches -- quietly enjoyed her co-workers' jokes, son-in-law Tom Nicholas recalled. "She didn't laugh out loud, but you knew she was laughing because ... you'd see the ladder shaking on the tree," he said. Davis' son-in-law also worked with her at Sebastopol Apple Growers United. As the conveyor belt moved apples past the packers, "when she was in the front row, nobody else got apples, because she could pack them all," he remembered. "Nobody wanted her to be at the front because they got paid by the box." For 18 years, Davis drove a school bus, first for Pacific Christian Academy, where her late brother Noble Rogers was principal, and next for Oak Grove schools. At 65, she retired from driving that 76-passenger bus, only to be introduced to tree farming by son Delbert Davis of Sebastopol. In 1982, the Davises converted a Gravenstein apple orchard on their 4-acre property to the tree farm, the year before Gilbert Davis became ill and died. The couple entered the new venture for retirement income, which Davis shared generously through gifts to grandchildren and great-grandchildren. In addition to her daughter, son and their spouses, Davis is survived by two sisters, Edna Davis of Turner, Ore., and Helen Striepeke of Davis; five grandchildren; and 11 great-grandchildren. A memorial service will be at 2 p.m. Saturday at Forestville Church of Christ on Covey Road. The family suggests donations to Pacific Christian Academy, P.O. Box 369, Graton 95444. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Return to Greer County Archives: http://www.usgwarchives.net/ok/greer/greer.htm