Memorial Service for Zelda Tresea Montgomery Davis will be Friday, December 14, 2018 at 10:00 a.m. at Centenary United Methodist Church with Rev. Lisa Beavers of Frederick United Methodist Church, Frederick and Rev. Dr. Brandon Dollarhite, Associate Pastor of Centenary United Methodist Church officiating.

Burial will follow in the Marlow City Cemetery under the direction of Becker-Rabon Funeral Home.

Zelda Tresea Montgomery Davis, 87, passed away November 29, 2018 in Jackson, Mississippi. Zelda was born January 15, 1931 in Lawton, Oklahoma to Jacob Randolph Montgomery and Roma Clift Montgomery.

Zelda graduated with her high school diploma from the Hockaday School in Dallas, Texas.  She earned a Bachelor of Liberal Arts at Mills College in Oakland, California and a Master of Library Science at the University of Oklahoma where she was a member of the Delta Gamma Fraternity.

She met her future husband Jack R. Davis on a blind date in Fort Sill, Oklahoma, on which he thought "she was the prettiest thing."  They married on February 26, 1955 in Marlow, Oklahoma in the First United Methodist Church, which her grandfather founded.  They moved throughout the U.S. for her husband's military and work assignments before settling in Jackson, Mississippi in 1962 during the height of the civil rights movement.

Zelda excelled in a 20-year career as a librarian, working for the Mississippi Library Commission to develop multiple reading programs, including the Mississippi Library for the Blind and Physically Handicapped.  In 1976, Zelda changed careers to manage her family's businesses with her sister in Lawton, Oklahoma, which are now known as FSNB, National Association; City National Bank & Trust; Data Processing, Incorporated; and JRMB II, Incorporated.  She fully embraced her career-driven lifestyle by continuing her education with a Master of Business Administration from Millsaps College in 1985 and making a lifelong commitment to fly biweekly between her family in Jackson and her businesses in Lawton.  She and her sister were two of the few female chairmen and executives for banks in the nation.

Zelda was a strong woman and zealously invested in her person.  She learned Spanish in her 60s, regularly hiked through Mississippi's Le Fleur's Bluff State Park and Oklahoma's Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge, traveled internationally since a European road trip at age 16 directly after World War II, and watched or read hundreds of theatre performances, films and books.  She loved to invest into others, too, with dedicated support to the Lawton Food Bank, United Way, Lawton Community Theatre, National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, individuals in need, and many others.

She leaves her husband Jack R. Davis, her son John Randolph Davis and his wife Tracie Tuck-Davis, her granddaughter Tiffany Davis, her grandson Jacob Davis and his wife Michaela Kingsley Davis, her granddaughter Jessica Davis, her sister Roma Lee Porter, her sister-in-law Patsy Rackley and her husband Kenneth Rackley, her niece Tresea Montgomery Moses and her husband George Moses, her nephew George Lewis Porter III and his wife Mary Dzindolet, her niece Alesha Kim White and her husband Floyd White, her nephew Timothy Brad Rackley, and her many great-nieces and great-nephews.

Her son Stanley Bruce Davis and her brother-in-law George Lewis Porter Jr. preceded her in death.

Memorial contributions may be made to the Lawton Food Bank, P.O. Box 3812, Lawton, OK 73502