James and Doris Davis Were Married at Faith Temple in 1964
Both were 23 years old when they united in holy matrimony just before Wednesday night prayer meeting on Dec. 23, 1964, at Faith Temple, Taylors, SC. Pastor James H. "Jimmy" Thompson led the vows for Mr. James L. Davis and Mrs. Doris Ann Kelley Davis. James’ sister Linda attended Faith Temple. She had begun walking from Pine Log Ford Road (her family's home) as a teenager to be with friends at Faith Temple. Then Pastor Jimmy began giving her a ride to church. So James and Doris asked Pastor Thompson to perform the wedding.
“I cut the holly the morning we got married,” says James, 82. That holly decorated two tall candle-stands placed behind Pastor Thompson in Faith Temple’s first sanctuary. A large flower arrangement stood between the two candle displays. Doris, wearing white high heels, was dressed in white. A white veil covered her blond hair. James, with closely-cropped red hair, wore a dark suit and tie.
“We told our immediate families about the wedding,” Doris, 82, says, “but word got out, and quite a few people were there.”
They met on June 29 and married on James’ birthday, Dec. 23. This year (2024), they plan to celebrate their 60th anniversary. “We’ve had a good marriage,” Doris says. They’ve lived 24 years in their present house. They have two children: Rodney Davis and Michelle Lindsey. They say they think of Gail Smith, 58, as a daughter. At age 11, she came to live with them. They have seven grandchildren (two of the seven are deceased) and three great-grandchildren.
“I was eleven years old when I accepted Christ,” Doris says.
Her mother, Mrs. Elizabeth Kelley, was an “exhorter” (a “strong encourager” who urged people to follow the Lord) and was leading a revival at Little Texas Assembly of God, built by the late Pastor William Campbell, when Doris accepted the Lord. That was the only revival her mother ever held.
“Mother was ‘on fire’ and could speak in tongues. She spoke at the Wednesday night meetings,” Doris says. “She died in 1995.”
Mr. Grover Cleveland Kelley, Doris’ father, was Baptist, and Doris’ family went to Clearview Baptist Church when she married. Doris had two brothers, Charles and Morris (deceased) and a sister, Sarah Porter.
James became a Christian after he married and began attending Faith Temple. He was the sixth of eight children in his family. His parents were Mr. Charlie and Mrs. Amelia Davis. James left Blue Ridge High before graduating and worked at Southern Bleachery. He “volunteered for the draft” and spent two years as a U.S. Army military policemen (MP). He earned his GED while in service. Wanting “to see the world,” he spent most of his time in Alabama. Discharged in 1962, he returned to Southern Bleachery.
After graduating from Travelers Rest High School in 1959, Doris worked at Stone Manufacturing Company. James met Doris when his sister, Linda Lynn, who married Doris’ first cousin, Alvin Bayne, brought James to Doris’ house. They dated for six months and married.
Doris stayed home with their children for a while, worked two years at Channel 16 (Dove Broadcasting), worked 25 years as a Westside Medical Center receptionist, and retired at age 62. James worked at Southern Bleachery until it closed in 1967. He worked two years at Celanese and then for Phillips Fibers as a research technician. During the last few years of his career, he worked 300 miles from home, living in a Martinsville, Va., motel during the week and driving 300 miles to home on weekends. In 2000, he retired at age 62. “The Lord has been good to me,” he says.
James suffered two strokes. The first went undetected, but James recalls an occasion he became overheated and weak. “Eight years ago was my second stroke. I haven’t driven since then,” he says.
Doris remembers that second stroke: “He went to the garden after supper one night. I said to myself, ‘He’s been out there too long.’ I walked to the porch and saw him on the ground. He was conscious but couldn’t talk.”
Neighbor William Lindsey and his son Cooper saw Doris trying to help James. They drove over to assist. “He’s had a stroke,” William said. James went by ambulance to St. Francis Hospital. Tests showed “two strokes” — one milder stroke happened years earlier.
Though Doris suffers from neuropathy (peripheral nerve disease) and James deals with stroke effects, they sometimes attend church.
“We come when we can,” Doris says. “The Lord sure has blessed us.”
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