In Memoriam 1992-1997/Gail Avery Davis

In Memoriam 1992-1997 Gail Avery Davis

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GAIL AVERY DAVIS

Knight of Bahá’u’lláh 1903-1995

Gail Avery Davis

When the Knight of Bahá’u’lláh Gail Avery Davis passed away, the Alaskan Bahá’í community lost a significant link with its foundations.

Gail was a grandmother in her forties when she heard of the Bahá’í Faith, and she returned to school for nurse's training to better serve the Cause she embraced.

In 1953 she went to the Jubilee in Chicago that launched the Guardian's Ten Year Crusade, and she decided to pioneer. Baranof Island was the responsibility of the National Spiritual Assembly of Canada, and Gail left her Montana home to fill the post. Her nurse's training enabled her to work at the Mt. Edgecumbe Hospital and the Sitka Pioneer Home.

Her gentle manner and lively wit made her welcome anywhere. She was actively involved with the native community; adopted

[Page 262]as a Tlingit, she had married Albert Davis, head of the Coho Clan of Tlingits for Sitka. Theirs was a close and loving relationship. and after thirty-eight years of marriage, Albert was separated from Gail by death for only forty-five days. On November 10, 1995, the Universal House of Justice responded to her passing as follows:

GRIEVED NEWS PASSING DEARLY LOVED KNIGHT BAHÁ’U’LLÁH GAIL AVERY DAVIS, DEVOTED SERVANT AROSE CALL OF BELOVED GUARDIAN, FULFILLING GOAL TEN YEAR PLAN NSA CANADA, MAINTAINING POST IN SITKA ALASKA OVER FORTY YEARS. WINNING HEARTS CONFIDENCE ESPECIALLY TLINGIT PEOPLE. SUPPLICATING HOLY SHRINES PROGRESS HER STALWART SOUL ABHÁ KINGDOM.

John Kolstoe