Charles Blevins Davis (1903-July 16, 1971) was an American playwright and theatrical producer. [1]
Charles Blevins Davis, the only son of Charles A. Davis and his wife, grew up in Independence, Missouri. [1] Davis grew up next to the Harry S. Truman family and was a lifelong friend and White House visitor [2] of Harry, Bess and Margaret. [1] He shortened his name to C. Blevins Davis. [3]
Davis attended old Kansas City Junior College and, for a short time in the class of 1925 at Princeton University. [1] [2] He graduated from the University of Missouri in 1925. After teaching in Independence, Davis studied at Yale University. [1] .
Davis returned to Independence and taught at the William Chrisman High School. He later worked at NBC in New York as the educational programs supervisor. By 1949, Davis was president of the Ballet Theater of New York. [1] He was also a member of the American National Theater Association's board of directors. Davis produced Hamlet at the Elsinore Castle in Denmark. It was the first American production of the play in Denmark. He produced the 1952 touring revival of Porgy and Bess , which starred Cab Calloway, William Warfield, and Leontyne Price. [1] The State Department sponsored the production in Madrid and Moscow. [2]
Davis became owner of a weekly Cripple Creek, Colorado, newspaper in 1951. [2] The Cripple Creek District Museum in Colorado was founded by Blevins Davis and Margaret Giddings in 1953. [4] Due to financial obligations of more than $400,00, Davis sold his Glendale Farm in 1959. [2]
In 1946, Davis married Marguerite Sawyer Hill, [1] the widow of James N. Hill. [2] Margaret was an art patron, socialite, and heiress to a railroad fortune. [1] She owned Big Tree Farm in Glen Head, New York, on Long Island. [2]
Margaret died at St. Luke's Hospital in Kansas City, Missouri, on March 18, 1948, of a heart attack. Davis received her nine-million-dollar fortune upon her death. He rebuilt and renovated his Glendale Farm in Independence. In 1949, Davis purchased the Claremont Estate in Colorado Springs, Colorado. The mansion, which he renamed Trianon, was sold to the Sisters of St. Francis Seraph in 1952. [1] Woodmen Sanatorium, also in Colorado Springs, was purchased by Davis in July 1950. His wife, Marguerite Davis, a railroad heiress died in 1948 and wished to have her fortune used for charitable purposes. The Modern Woodmen Sanatorium property and Trianon were sold to the Poor Sisters of St. Francis (Sisters of St. Francis of Perpetual Adoration) for $1 in 1952. The combined fortune that they received was worth $2,325,000 (equivalent to $22,405,855in 2020). [5] [6] [7]
In the 1950s, Davis moved to Lima, Peru. While in London on a business trip, Davis died of a heart attack [1] on July 16, 1971. He had no surviving children. [2] His Princeton obituary stated that he lived a "colorful career" and spent $10 million during his "high-living days". [2]
Winfield Scott Stratton was an American prospector, capitalist, and philanthropist. He discovered the Independence Lode near Victor, Colorado on July 4, 1891, and became the Cripple Creek Mining District's first millionaire in 1894. He provided to build buildings, improve the street car system, build the first professional ball park, and provided funds to people in need.
Independence is the fifth-largest city in Missouri. It lies within Jackson County, of which it is the county seat. Independence is a satellite city of Kansas City, Missouri, and is the largest suburb on the Missouri side of the Kansas City metropolitan area. In 2010, it had a total population of 116,830.
The human history of Colorado extends back more than 14,000 years. The region that is today the state of Colorado was first inhabited by Native American people. The Lindenmeier Site in Larimer County, Colorado, is a Folsom culture archaeological site with artifacts dating from approximately 8710 BC.
Elizabeth Virginia Truman was the wife of President Harry S. Truman and the First Lady of the United States from 1945 to 1953. She also served as the Second Lady of the United States in 1945.
The Harry S. Truman National Historic Site preserves the longtime home of Harry S. Truman, the thirty-third president of the United States, as well as other properties associated with him in the Kansas City, Missouri metropolitan area. The site is operated by the National Park Service, with its centerpieces being the Truman Home in Independence and the Truman Farm Home in Grandview. It also includes the Noland home of Truman's cousins, and the George and Frank Wallace homes of Bess Truman's brothers. The site was designated a National Historic Site on May 23, 1983.
Before it was founded, the site of modern-day Colorado Springs, Colorado, was part of the American frontier. Old Colorado City, built in 1858 during the Pike's Peak Gold Rush was the Colorado Territory capital. The town of Colorado Springs, was founded by General William Jackson Palmer as a resort town. Old Colorado City was annexed into Colorado Springs. Railroads brought tourists and visitors to the area from other parts of the United States and abroad. The city was noted for junctions for seven railways: Denver and Rio Grande (1870), Denver and New Orleans Manitou Branch (1882), Colorado Midland (1886-1918), Colorado Springs and Interurban, Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe (1889), Rock Island (1889), and Colorado Springs and Cripple Creek Railways. It was also known for mining exchanges and brokers for the Cripple Creek Gold Rush.
Gold mining in Colorado, a state of the United States, has been an industry since 1858. It also played a key role in the establishment of the state of Colorado.
Austin Bluffs is a summit in the Pikeview area of Colorado Springs in El Paso County, Colorado, at 6,673 feet (2,034 m) in elevation. It is also a residential area, that was once a settlement and the site of a tuberculosis sanatorium. The University of Colorado Colorado Springs campus was moved there in 1965.
Modern Woodmen of America (MWA) is one of the largest fraternal benefit societies in the United States, with more than 750,000 members. Total assets reached US$15.4 billion in 2016. Though it shares the same founder, it is not affiliated financially in any way with another, similarly-styled fraternal benefit society, WoodmenLife, and despite the name "Modern" is actually older than its counterpart.
The Harry S. Truman Historic District is a National Historic Landmark District encompassing sites closely associated with US President Harry S. Truman in Independence, Missouri. It includes the Truman Home at 219 North Delaware, Truman's home for much of his adult life and now a centerpiece of the Harry S. Truman National Historic Site, and the Truman Presidential Library. The district was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1971, and was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1974. When first listed, the district included only the two buildings and a corridor joining them. It was substantially enlarged in 2011 to include more sites and the environment in which Truman operated while living in Independence.
Penrose Hospital is a hospital located in Colorado Springs, Colorado and owned by Penrose-Saint Francis Health Services.
Assured Life Association, formerly Woodmen of the World and/or Assured Life Association, having officially changed its name to on January 1, 2015, is a fraternal benefit society based in Denver, Colorado whose beginnings can be traced to the same founder as Modern Woodmen of America and Woodmen of the World in 1890. Today, Assured Life Association is not affiliated with either organization. Aside from offering insurance benefits the organization is a non-profit Life Insurer organized to give back revenues to its member customers through direct benefits such as college scholarships and summer camp grants for youth and through discounts on other products and services. The Society also has a member-directed matching charitable giving program. Four national community service projects are promoted among Society member customers each year.
Englemann Canyon is a valley along Ruxton Creek, in Manitou Springs, El Paso County, Colorado. It is one of three canyons in Manitou Springs, the others are Ute Pass and Williams Canyon.
Camp Harding was a summer resort with boarding house west of Broadmoor Park "at the mouth of Cheyenne canon" that was one of several early 20th century health facilities in the area Anna E Harding was the 1903 proprietor of the facility on W Cheyenne Road, which was through the gate with gatekeeper for the "carriage-way to the Cheyenne canons" with a "rustic bridge" to Camp Harding's "red roof" structures and pine trees. Camp Harding had a single-story cottage, c. seven tents, and a 2-story brick home with striped porch awning, and the camp was named in a 1912 Long Island, New York, divorce case. The area is now part of the Colorado Springs metropolitan area.
The town of Colorado Springs, Colorado played an important role in the history of tuberculosis in the era before antituberculosis drugs and vaccines. Tuberculosis management before this era was difficult and often of limited effect. In the 19th century, a movement for tuberculosis treatment in hospital-like facilities called sanatoriums became prominent, especially in Europe and North America. Thus people sought tuberculosis treatment in Colorado Springs because of its dry climate and fresh mountain air. Some people stayed in boarding houses, while others sought the hospital-like facilities of sanatoriums. In the 1880s and 1890s, it is estimated that one-third of the people living in Colorado Springs had tuberculosis. The number of sanatoriums and hospitals increased into the twentieth century. During World War II, medicines were developed that successfully treated tuberculosis and by the late 1940s specialized tuberculosis treatment facilities were no longer needed.
David Frederick "Fred" Wallace was an architect and brother of First Lady of the United States Bess Truman.
Cheyenne Mountain is a triple-peaked mountain in El Paso County, Colorado, southwest of downtown Colorado Springs. The mountain serves as a host for military, communications, recreational, and residential functions. The underground operations center for the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) was built during the Cold War to monitor North American airspace for missile launches and Soviet military aircraft. Built deep within granite, it was designed to withstand the impact and fallout from a nuclear bomb. Its function broadened with the end of the Cold War, and then many of its functions were transferred to Peterson Air Force Base in 2006.
Marguerite Sawyer Hill Davis was one of the wealthiest women in the United States in the mid-1900s. Her husband, James Norman Hill, was the son of James J. Hill, a railroad tycoon. She was an art patron, socialite, and heiress to a railroad fortune.
Old North End Historic District of Colorado Springs, Colorado is located north of Colorado College between Monument Valley Park, an alley between Weber and Nevada Streets, and Uintah and Lilac Streets. It was called North End Historic District until September 2015 when the district boundaries were expanded and the neighborhood was renamed.
Marshall Sprague was an American journalist in New York, Paris, and China and author of books about western United States History. From Ohio, he moved to Colorado Springs, Colorado to recuperate following a diagnosis of tuberculosis and settled there. He received the Colorado Authors League Top Hand Award for Massacre: The Tragedy At White River and A Gallery of Dudes.