Community honors lifetime of service
Thomas E. "Tiny" Davis may have been small in stature but he had enough strength to lead his firefighters safely home for a lifetime.
A father, brother and friend, Davis died at 6:50 a.m. Thursday at the age of 67.
Tiny had many titles in life. He was a Slippery Rock fire chief, interim mayor, Army veteran and employee of Pullman Standard railcar manufacturing company until 1982. Davis still was taking calls as a 911 operator for the Butler County Communications Center until March 2007.
Funeral services were held at 1 p.m. Monday at Highland Presbyterian Church in Slippery Rock, where fire engines from Chicora, Prospect, Unionville, Harrisville, Slippery Rock and other communities all gathered to honor Davis' lifetime of service. Medevac helicopters flew overhead as the men of Davis' company hoisted his casket into a borough fire engine bound for the chief's final resting place.
Current and retired firefighters stood at attention, saluting the man who had been their fire chief and friend.
"The touching part of it for me was when the two helicopters flew over," Mayor Ken Harris said. "It was a mark of respect from the community that Tiny earned."
A somber crowd of firefighters, paramedics and police officers who Davis had befriended in his many years of community service packed the afternoon service.
The Rev. Albert Rhodes Stewart read Psalm 23 for the man who had walked in the shadow of death many times in the line of duty.
Assistant fire chief and lifelong friend Ron Steele remembers how Davis was able to get out of a fire at the local theater after the building had collapsed. He knew his way because he was always sneaking into the theater as a young man, Steele said.Both men grew up in Slippery Rock where, according to Steele, the only things to do were play basketball, take "Liquid libation class 101" and, of course, join the volunteer fire department. Davis was too small for the first one, but the second two were right up his alley.He was a NASCAR fan and car aficionado who used to have to sit on a stack of phone books to see over the wheel of his '53 Chevy. But that didn't stop him from burning all of the other guys' cars at the Hog's Flat drag strip, Steele said."He'll have one up there," Steele said, referring to the Chevy classic cars his buddy loved so much.Friend John Stokes got to know Davis well during the past 15 years. He was the quiet guy who had his own seat at the corner of the bar, he said."He always wanted to buy you a drink, always wanted to be your friend, always wanted to help you," Stokes said. "We miss you now and we'll miss you till we're all together forever."Davis was a quiet man, never one to bring up his own difficulties. Cindy White, who Davis raised like a daughter, was his nurse when his health started to decline."Tiny was a great dad," White said. "He was the quiet strength that was always in my corner."
