Rosalie Davis Obituary

Davis, Rosalie Minerva June 16, 1916--April 4, 2008 Rosalie Minerva Dorsey Davis a resident of the North Beverly area for 37 years died in her home on April 4, after a short illness. Rosalie was born on June 16, 1916, in Montgomery, Ala., the fourth child of David R. and Melissa Culpepper Dorsey. The family moved to Chicago when she was four. Allowed to sit in school with an older sister, Marjorie, she learned to read early, and continued to be an avid reader. In grammar school, she met Margaret Taylor (Burroughs), and they remained lifelong friends. Shortly after she entered Englewood High School, her father's tailoring business was devastated by the Great Depression, and Rosalie and two siblings were sent to Los Angeles to live with other relatives. Upon graduation from high school and the death of her mother, she returned to Chicago and entered Crane Junior College and later the Normal College that became Chicago State University. Rosalie earned masters degrees from Chicago State and DePaul Universities, and embarked on a 34-year teaching career. Chicago State honored her as Golden Alumna in 2006. Rosalie loved dancing, and as a young aspirant joined Katherine Dunham who was changing careers from anthropology to modern dance. Rosalie stayed behind when Dunham move to New York, pursuing teaching at Keith, Felsenthal and Ross Schools. Rosalie married Charles Davis on November 1, 1943, in the Church of the Good Shepherd, and in time, the couple was blessed with Charles Jr. and Daphne Kaye. After retiring in 1979, Rosalie enjoyed her hobbies of painting, writing children's stories, reading and traveling. She visited twenty-five states and more than a dozen countries in Africa. She cruised, and visited Mexico, Jamaica, Martinique, Brazil, Argentina, China, India, Greece and Turkey. Rosalie is survived by her husband, her son Charles, Jr. (Betty), daughter Daphne (Theodore LeCesne, Jr.), grandsons Charles III (Lena), Robert (Monique), and Tremaine Davis, Adrian and Maxwell LeCesne, sister-in-law Clarice Durham, nieces Helene Montgomery and Dianne Branch, nephews William L. Bell, Jr. (Beulah), David (Ann), and Donald (Harriet) Dorsey, and Mark (Octavia) Durham, great granddaughters Indigo and Kamilah Davis, grandnieces Quaana and Stephanie Dorsey, and Carolyn Richards, other relatives and many friends.