Students who frequented University Drive could count on receiving a greeting from the old man who stood under a cedar tree at the end of the sidewalk in front of his white brick house and shouted “Hey!” at passers-by.
The man, Henry Pierce “Punchy” Davis, died April 16, Easter Sunday, at the age of 87.
Davis, who was born in Texas and grew up in Tennessee, came to Mississippi State College on a boxing scholarship in 1937. He would tell those who stopped to talk to him on University Drive about his service as mayor of Starkville-he served three terms-and in the Army Air Corps, where he served for 27 years.
Davis was also inducted into the MSU Sports Hall of Fame and the Amateur Boxing Hall of Fame.
He got his nickname, Punchy, from his days as a collegiate boxer, Stennis Institute director Marty Wiseman said. “I imagine he’s a pretty tough customer.”
The house where Davis lived is across the street from St. Joseph’s Catholic Church, which caused senior political science major Edward Sanders to mistake his identity at first. “I always thought he was a Catholic priest and he was out waving at everybody.”
Eventually, friends informed Sanders of the man’s identity.
Sanders never spoke with Davis but knew him by sight, he said. “Everybody knew him from him standing out in his yard waving.”
Wiseman, whose father graduated from MSU with Davis in 1941, met the former mayor as a child when he helped Wiseman’s father put together class reunions.
A few months ago, Wiseman stopped to talk with Davis in front of his house and was pleased to find that Davis still remembered who he was and who his father was, he said.
Davis was a member of the last class to graduate from MSU before the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, Wiseman said. “They had a championship football team, and they’re the only ones as far as that goes.”
“He was definitely right there in the middle of the greatest generation,” Wiseman said.
A student, senior information technology services major Keith Pisarich, set up a group on Facebook, In Memory of Punchy, in honor of Davis.
“This group is for anyone who has had a conversation with Punchy,” the group’s description reads. “Whether it be about his boxing experiences or growing up in Pittsburgh (sic), Texas…Starkville will always remember Henry Pierce ‘Punchy’ Davis Jr.”
Davis was buried Wednesday in the Oddfellows Cemetery following a funeral at the First United Methodist Church. Memorials may be made to the First United Methodist Church Music Ministry.
He is survived by his wife, Ruby Nash Lewis of Starkville; three children, Sandra Thoms, John Davis and Ginga Carter; nine grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.