Neil J. Davis, 94, who moved to Plant City in 1965 after retiring from GTE in Tampa, was an avid gardener and a proud veteran of the United States Army, Air Force and Marines. He served in the military police during World War II and was happy to talk about his military service.
Davis was an extremely passionate family historian. He spent many years tracing back his family’s lineage and learning as much as he could about his kin. Learning about his family was a passion he shared with his four children, as well.
But while he enjoyed learning about his family, there was one thing about him that his family didn’t learn until fairly recently.
In 1942, when Davis was 16, his mother sent him to attend the Arthur G. Dozier School for Boys in Marianna. The Dozier School, which was closed in 2011, operated for 111 years and became notorious for its harsh treatment of students. Many of its boys were beaten down physically and torn apart mentally. There’s even belief that some boys died as a result of the trauma they suffered at the school.
“When my grandmother had him sent there for ‘incorrigibility,’ whatever that meant in 1942, they called it the Florida School for Boys,” Davis’ daughter, Carole Ellis, said. “Daddy was taken there on a bus in February and came back by bus on Dec. 21, 1942. I never found out what ‘incorrigibility’ meant then.”
Ellis said her father was in rare company at the school as “one of the few they liked.”
“They had these bi-weekly newspapers they’d put out called the Yellow Jacket,” she said. “I was shocked. Daddy was on the football team and always doing something. Apparently he was one of the few they liked. Every time I turned around, he was in those newspapers. I have every one of them from February to December.”
Even though he was “liked” by staff, he wasn’t completely spared from abuse. He knew too well the horrors of the school’s “White House,” where many beatings occurred. In his adult life, Davis became a member of the White House Boys organization that has shone a spotlight on the school’s repugnant practices. The White House Boys were open about their experiences at the school and eventually helped convince the state (and, later, the United States Department of Justice) to conduct a formal investigation. After the school was officially shut down, researchers from the University of South Florida explored the campus and documented more than 100 deaths in the area.
Davis was the oldest member of the group. Though he became more open about his time at the school in the last five years, it was a secret he kept from his family for more than 50 years, Ellis said, which was also not uncommon for members of the group.
“Several White House Boys told me they never told anybody until a few years ago when they started getting in the papers,” she said.
He is survived by Ellis (William) and children Alan S. Davis, Brenda E. Davis and Wayde C. Davis; brother Dusty W. Davis (Dorothy); seven grandchildren and 11 great-grandchildren; and close friends Ed Nelson, Lee Surett and Jim Crews.