- Title
- Our State
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-
- Date
- April 2006
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-
- Place
- ["North Carolina, United States"]
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Our State
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TAR HEEL HISTORY
Evangeline McLennan Dam did
■ore before i he age of 25 than
Mime people do in a lifetime. This
athlete and lournalist. later a Ivxik
author and newspaper columnist. lived
a life rich with aecomphshmcnt. It's the
kind of life young women today could
avpire to live. But Evangeline Davis
wasn't simply a role model; she was a
trailbla/er because she achieved so
much in an era when the opportunities
for women in these arenas were limited.
"She had boundless energy.” saw
Angela DavivGardnct, her daughter;
who lives in Raleigh and teaches
creative writing at North Carolina
State University. "She was a very
strong feminist — although she didn't
use that term.”
Evangeline Davis wasn't a lifelong
Tar Heel; she lived in the state during
several periods of her adult life,
including her final sears before her
death in May 2004. But from her
initial move to North Carolina, she
steeped herself in the state's traditions
and culture, from collecting Scagrove
pottery to mingling with her era's most
accomplished writers and historians.
A notable youth
Evangeline McLennan was born in
Decatur. Georgia, on September IS.
1914, to Angela and Alexander
Dowling McLennan. She was the
youngest of six children.
When che was a teenager, her name
began appearing in newspapers — not
for her writing, as would later be the
case, but for her tennis playing. Tall
and aple. she began racking up wins
on the court. "She vaid one way she
learned sports was by throwing rocks
at her brothers." says Davis Gardner.
Touring the country put her up against
plavers like tennis legend Alice Marble,
and she earned a national ranking.
Bright and ambitious. Evangeline
Davis refused to be limited by the
social conventions of her time.
Woman of Letters
After enjoying athletic achievements in her youth. l-vangeline
Mcl ennan Davis went on to a notable journalism career covering
sports ami foreign affairs.
»v Brit ia Waller
AfntMOfiO urXale 71
