Note
Dr. Henrietta Dumesnil Rose Davis, the New York City native was born April 19, 1934. She grew up in Nashville, where she graduated with honors from Harpeth Hall School’s first graduating class and married Robert Lee Davis III, then a recent graduate of Vanderbilt University, with whom she had four children. She resumed her education by studying at Harvard in the eventful summer of 1968, returning to Nashville to earn her bachelor’s degree at Peabody College in 1969, a master’s degree from Vanderbilt in 1970 and a Ph.D. from Peabody in 1976. She was a member of the Daughters of the American Revolution (McCrory Chapter) and the Women’s Political Caucus in Nashville. She also served as secretary for the American Association of University Women and as a policy analyst for Nashville Metro Government. In 1977, she became Vanderbilt University’s first female director of personnel and later served Tennessee State University in that capacity until moving to Boca Raton, Fla., where she served as vice president for Atlantic Federal Bank. In 1986, she returned to Nashville, working for the Small Business Development Agency in Bowling Green, Ky., then later again for Tennessee State University, where she retired in 2003. She was a daughter of the late Henrietta Dumesnil Fitch and John Landon Rose, who were of Bowling Green.