[Congressional Record Volume 150, Number 131 (Tuesday, November 16, 2004)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1982]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


                    REMEMBERING JUDGE BRATTON DAVIS

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                            HON. JOE WILSON

                           of south carolina

                    in the house of representatives

                       Tuesday, November 16, 2004

  Mr. WILSON of South Carolina. Mr. Speaker, South Carolina recently 
recognized the extraordinary life of the late Judge J. Bratton Davis. 
Judge Davis will always be remembered as the embodiment of a Southern 
Gentleman.
  Multiple generations of my family knew and respected Judge Davis. My 
grandparents Bill and Joe Graves were close friends and my parents Wray 
and Hugh Wilson became admiring friends as fellow students at the 
University of South Carolina. I will always cherish working with him in 
1962 as he managed the successful campaign of Donald S. Russell for 
Governor of South Carolina. He honored me to be a Youth Manager in the 
June 1962 primary for the Lowcountry which inspired me to seek a 
similar career in public service.
  I would like to insert in the Record the following obituary from the 
State newspaper:

                    [From the State, Oct. 31, 2004]

                          Judge Bratton Davis

       Columbia.--Funeral service for The Honorable J. Bratton 
     Davis will be held Monday at 11 a.m. at Trinity Episcopal 
     Cathedral with burial in Elmwood Memorial Gardens. Serving as 
     pallbearers will be Michael M. Beal, John B. Butler III, 
     George B. Cauthen, Todd R. Ellis, Robert C. Kelly, R. 
     Geoffrey Levy, William Bratton Riley, and W. Keenan 
     Stephenson. Dunbar Funeral Home, Devine Street Chapel, is in 
     charge.
       Judge Davis died Friday, October 29, 2004. Born in 
     Hartsville on October 27, 1917, he was the elder son of the 
     late John Bratton Davis and Sarah Causey ``Dee'' Davis. A 
     1938 graduate of the University of South Carolina and 1940 
     graduate of the University of South Carolina School of Law, 
     he continued graduate study at Harvard Law School in 1941. He 
     was commissioned as a line officer in the United States Navy 
     serving during WW II principally in the South Pacific Theater 
     of Operations.
       From WW II until 1969, Judge Davis practiced law with the 
     firm of Graydon, Davis and Suber. He was admitted to practice 
     in all of the South Carolina courts, all of the federal 
     courts and the High Court of American Samoa.
       In 1948, the Junior Chamber of Commerce named Judge Davis 
     ``Columbia's Young Man of the Year.'' He has served as: U.S. 
     Bankruptcy Judge for the District of South Carolina (1969-
     2000); Chief Judge of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the 
     District of S.C. (1986-2000); Chairman, State of South 
     Carolina Development Board; Columbia Board of Directors of 
     the South Carolina National Bank; Board of Directors of 
     Security Federal Savings and Loan Association; President of 
     the Columbia Museum of Art; Vestryman, Trinity Cathedral; 
     member of the Judicial Conference of the Circuit Court of 
     Appeals for the Fourth Circuit; member of the Security and 
     Facilities Committee of the Judicial Conference of the 
     United States; member of the Board of Directors of the 
     University of South Carolina Educational Foundation; 
     member of the Board of Directors of the University of 
     South Carolina Law School Partnership Board; member of the 
     Board of Directors of the Virginia and Donald S. Russell 
     Symposium Committee; member of the Board of Governors of 
     the National Conference of Bankruptcy Judges; President of 
     the Columbia Kiwanis Club; member of the Board of 
     Directors of the Columbia Chapter of the American Red 
     Cross; member of the Board of Directors of the National 
     Foundation for Infantile Paralysis; Chairman of the Donald 
     Russell Gubernatorial Inauguration Committee; member of 
     the Board of Directors of the Byrnes Foundation; and 
     member of the Board of Directors of the James F. Bynes 
     Centennial Committee.
       In 2000, Judge Davis was awarded the Order of the Palmetto, 
     the highest honor conferred by the State of South Carolina.
       The J. Bratton Davis U.S. Bankruptcy Courthouse was so 
     named in his honor upon his retirement from the bench in 
     2000.
       He held memberships in: Forest Lake Club; Palmetto Club; 
     Centurion Society; South Caroliniana Society; Kappa Alpha 
     Order; Omicron Delta Phi; The Columbia Ball; and South 
     Carolina Historical Society.
       Judge Davis is survived by his wife, Margaret Smyth 
     McKissick Davis; sons, Sherwood McKissick Cleveland and his 
     wife, Kathleen of Camden, and William Choice Cleveland and 
     his wife, Anne of Charleston; daughter, Jean Davis Bruton and 
     her husband, John C. Bruton, Jr. of Columbia; brother, John 
     Thorne Davis of Charleston; and grandchildren, Sherwood 
     McKissick Cleveland Jr., Samuel Henry Edmunds Cleveland, John 
     Connor Cleveland, Braden Cleveland Bergan, Margaret Cleveland 
     Pitts, William Choice Cleveland IV, Margaret McKissick Bruton 
     and John Calvin Bruton III.

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