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Elmer David Davies, the son of Elmer H. Davies and Annie (Dixon) Davies, was born January 12, 1899, in Magnolia, Arkansas. His great-grandparents came to this country from Wales in 1850, settling in Michigan. His father, a Northern gentleman, was the grandson of a Federal Captain killed in the Civil War. His mother, a Southern woman, born in Arkansas, was the granddaughter of a Confederate Colonel. Davies's preparatory education was obtained in the public schools of Magnolia, Arkansas, his academic education in Henderson Brown College of Arkadelphia, Arkansas, from 1916 to 1918 and his legal education at Vanderbilt University graduating in 1922 with a LL.B., although he passed the Tennessee bar examination and had been admitted to practice law in 1921.1
Davies began the practice of law in Nashville with the firm of Bass, Berry and Sims. In 1928, he established an independent practice, but the next year Ferris C. Bailey and Davies formed the partnership of Bailey & Davies. Their partnership ended in 1938 and Davies became a member of the firm of Price, Davies & Price until his appointment to the federal bench.
Davies was elected in 1935, and reelected in 1937, to the Tennessee State Senate from Davidson County, where he served as chairman of the Rules and Steering Committees, and vice-chairman of the Joint Recess, Finance, Ways and Means, and Judiciary Committees. In 1938, he was elected a member of the Tennessee State Democratic Executive Committee. Senator Davies was an "active outdoorsman and an amateur chef of high repute."2 As a member of the Tennessee Game and Fish Conservation Commission from 1935-1954, he served as secretary of the commission in 1935-36 and was its chairman from 1952 to 1954.
On July 12, 1939, President Franklin D. Roosevelt appointed Davies to the United States District Court for Middle District of Tennessee. He became the first Chief Judge of the Middle District on February 10, 1954 and served until his death. As a Federal judge, he presided over several notable cases such as In Rhea v. Edwards.3 He declared the Tennessee Habitual Criminal Act, as originally enacted, unconstitutional and void as violative of the due process clause because of a failure to give notice to the accused that he would be prosecuted as an habitual criminal. In Hayes v. Crutches,4 following several Supreme Court opinions, he granted plaintiffs motion for summary judgment in an action for a declaratory judgment to enjoin the City Board of Park Commissioners from denying Negroes the use of public golf courses in the City of Nashville. This was Tennessee's landmark case ending racial segregation in the use of public recreational facilities. In Roberts v. American Fire's Casualty Co.,5 he held that an insurance company which is guilty of negligence and bad faith in investigating a claim within the limits of the insurance contract is liable to the insured for the full amount of the judgment recovered against him by the claimant, even though the amount of the judgment exceeds the limits of the insurance.6
Judge Davies was a veteran of World War I and a member of the American and Tennessee Bar Associations, the Nashville Bar (former secretary & treasurer), the Masons (32nd Degree), Amateur Chefs of America, and the Isaac Walton League.
Davies married Miss Luda Reynolds of Arcadia, Louisiana, on September 4, 1924. They were the parents of two sons, Elmer D., Jr. who later became a judge in the Tennessee Courts, and Edward Reynolds Davies. Judge Davies died in Nashville, Tennessee on January 7, 1957 at the age of 58 years. |
