Jeff Davis, Jr.

Jeff Davis, Jr., born in El Dorado on March 18, 1930, to Jeff and Hautine Davis, passed away in Medellin, Columbia, on Thursday, March 6, 2025.

He graduated from Culver Military Academy in Culver, Indiana in 1947 and enrolled in Northwestern University where he earned a degree in Business Administration in 1951.

He then attended the University of Texas Law School in Austin from which he graduated in 1954.

After law school, he entered officer training school at Quantico. From officer training, he served as J.A.G. in the USMC in Miami, where he met the love of his life, Cleo Hastings, a flight attendant for Pan American Airlines and a native of South Boston, Virginia. They married in 1957 and had two sons, Jeff Davis III and John Wallace Davis.

Jeff worked in California before moving back to Arkansas to work for the Murphy Corporation in El Dorado. In the 1960s, he moved his family to Little Rock, where he carried on the family tradition of law and politics (he was the grandson of Arkansas’s 20th governor and U.S. Senator, Jeff Davis), by serving as an assistant U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Arkansas in 1963. In 1966, he made an unsuccessful bid for prosecuting attorney for Pulaski and Perry Counties. He then entered private practice and worked as a judge for the Social Security Administration.

He was one of the original founders of the Little Rock Racquet Club in 1967. Jeff was also elected to the Arkansas Swimming Hall of Fame.

Preceded in death by his parents; his wife, Cleo Hastings Davis, who passed in November 2011; his sister, Diane Van Ness; and his son, John Wallace Davis. He is survived by his son, Jeff Davis III (Janet Villa); three granddaughters: Paula Andrea Davis Villa, Sofie Davis Villa, and Gabriela Davis Villa; and his niece, Jan Crawford.

A visitation will be held from 11:00 AM till 1:00 PM on Friday, April 4, 2025, at Smith Little Rock Funeral Home, 8801 Knoedl Ct. Little Rock, AR. Online guestbook: www.smithfamilycares.com.