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Ellis W. Davidson
Colonel Davidson was born March 5, 1890 in Council Grove, Kansas, son of Robert S. and Hattie Seamans Davidson. He graduated from Kansas University in 1912. He was a member of the University football squad and was prominent in literary activities.
Ellis Davidson married Miss Mildred Burgess of Springfield, MA November 22, 1916. The couple would have two sons Robert and Richard. Colonel Davidson was a reporter and city editor of the Springfield Mass. Republican for many years, followed by work in advertising and sales.
Since 1934 he has been one of the editors Sales Management Magazine.
In Rye his family lived at 5 Oakwood Ave and were members of the Presbyterian Church. Ellis served as an officer in the U.S. Army during World War II.
Following Mrs. Davidson's death in 1942 Colonel Davidson was commissioned in the Army and served successively in the Army's Bureau of Public Relations; as Chief Public Relations Officer of the 10th Army, participating in the Okinawa Invasion, and with the Security Control Board of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
Ellis W. Davidson, formerly of Rye and now a lieutenant colonel with the Bureau of War Information in Washington
RYE. NEW YORK FRIDAY, JULY 14, 1944
FATHER AND SON MEET FIRST
TIME IN TWO YEARS AT IWO JIMA
IWO JIMA Delayed . Army-Marine Corps cooperation never completed a happier mission than on
Iwo Jima beach this afternoon, when an Army father and a Marine son met for the first time in two years.
The father, Lieut. -Col. Ellis W. Davidson, of 1825 19th Street, NW, Washington, D. C, an Army public
relations officer had heard via service grapevine that his son was wounded on Iwo Jima. The son, Major Robert H. Davidson, who formerly lived at 5 Elmwood Avenue. Rye, N. Y, is one of the Marine Corps youngest combat battalion commanders. His outfit, the Second Battalion, 23rd Marines, spearheaded the Fourth Divisions assault on one of the toughest of this embattled islands tough defenses, and broke the back of the enemy's main counterattacks. In the terrific barrage, a Jap shell scored a direct hit on Major Davidsons command post. Most of his staff were knocked out and the Major himself temporarily deafened by concussion. Three days later he was back in command in time to receive the biggest surprise of the campaign. Lieut. Col. Davidson, whom his son had believed to be in the European theater, drove up in a jeep, after arriving by plane from a nearby base. The Colonel was equally surprised to see his son well and taking charge of a staff conference. The Davidson family service reunion would have been complete with the presence of another son, Richard, who is a Navy gunners mate somewhere in the Atlantic.
RYE, NEW YORK FRIDAY, MAY 4, 1945
Col. Davidson, Dies Suddenly
Colonel Ellis W. Davidson, fifty-eight, of Highland Road, died suddenly Tuesday night while returning by train to his home from New York City. His body was discovered by trainmen in Stamford. The medical examiner. Dr. Crane if Stamford, attributed death to sudden heart failure. A well-known resident of Rye for twenty-four years.
At the time of his death, he was survived by his two sons, Richard Stanley and Robert Harold and a grandson. Richard Stanley. Jr., all of Rye, and by his brother, Harold of Gering, Nebraska.
Colonel Davidson's body was reposed Thanksgiving Day at the Savidge Funeral Home, Purdy Avenue. Funeral services were conducted by the Reverend S. Carson Wasson , Saturday, November 27th in the Rye Presbyterian Church.
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