Norma Helen Clenney Davis • February 3, 2023
Norma Helen Clenney Davis, age 100, of Pensacola passed away February 3, 2023.
She was born on a small, rural farm on a dirt road in southwest Georgia, the second youngest of 13 children (and, she claimed, her Mom’s favorite). They lived through the depression, but she said they hardly knew it was going on—they always had plenty of fresh vegetables from the garden and hogs to smoke, and her father made syrup from his own mule-powered cane mill. She moved to Pensacola at age 17, where she met and married Clay S. Davis. Norma came a long way from that dirt road and the one-room schoolhouse she attended. She had a groundbreaking career in computer programming, having worked her way up from a keypunch operator at NAS Pensacola to becoming a programmer and systems analyst for a software company. A loving and hardworking mother (and a fantastic cook), she managed to send both of her sons to Princeton University. Norma played bridge several times a week and attained the rank of Regional Master. She traveled all over the globe, having been to almost every country in Europe, as well as South Africa, Zimbabwe, Japan, China, Australia, and New Zealand. She climbed the Great Wall of China and broke her foot on a motorcycle in Bermuda. She and her six sisters and one brother all piled into a rented motor home and took off to New England, and then did it again to the National Parks in the West. She was a member of First Baptist Church for over 83 years, and the church (especially the choir) was a big part of her life. She toured Europe and Japan with the choir, singing at Hiroshima and in European Gothic cathedrals, and performed with the choir at Carnegie Hall. Norma saved one of her favorite horoscopes, which read: “Your friends are your wealth,” and she had more friends than she could count.
She is predeceased by her former husband Clay Davis, their son Norman F. (Fred) Davis, and all 12 of her siblings. She is survived by her son Clay S. Davis, Jr., daughter-in-law Anita G. Davis, grandson Matthew B. Davis (Rachel Casey Davis), and great grandsons Clayton M. Davis and Henry B. Davis. She lived life to the fullest, was always optimistic and cheerful, and was adored by the many nieces and nephews of her extended family.
The family will receive friends at First Baptist Church, Pensacola, Pleitz Chapel at 12:30 pm on February 19, 2023, to be followed by a Memorial Service at 1:30 pm.
In lieu of flowers, please consider a donation to the First Baptist Church or the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, www.lls.org.
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What a beautiful life. She was a friend to so many of us and will be missed.
We so lived Miss Norma. She was a regular at Paw Paws fish frys. She loved our PayPal so much and we lived he dearly. Heaven is richer with her there!