MEMORIAL RESOLUTION FOR ELDER LEROY DAVENPORT
WHEREAS, it is with great sadness that Members of this Chamber learned of the death of Elder Leroy Davenport on Saturday March 27th, 2019 at the age of ninety-three; and
WHEREAS, the Chicago City Council has been informed of his passing by the Honorable Emma Mitts, Alderman of the 37th Ward; and
WHEREAS, Elder Leroy was born to William Jr. and Mariah Davenport on June 8, 1925 in Chicago, Illinois. He was the sixth of ten children. The family moved back to Clarksdale, Mississippi when Elder LeRoy was three years old; and
WHEREAS, as a young boy, Elder Leroy, along with his siblings, attended a segregated public school system for just four months ofthe year and worked in the fields for the remaining eight; and
WHEREAS, Elder LeRoy confessed his belief in Christ as the Son of God at the age of fourteen and was baptized at Mount Avery Baptist Church under the leadership of the Reverend Jasper Williams, Sr.; and
WHEREAS, as a young man, Elder Leroy served two years in the United States Army and was posted to the 92nd Division, Tank Destroyer; and
WHEREAS, in 1946, Elder Leroy married his childhood sweetheart, Miss Mae Bell Booker, whom he affectionately called "Honey Peach". Miss Mae Bell was the older daughter of Jesse and Callie Booker and one of a family of fourteen children; and
WHEREAS, like his father and grandfather, Elder Leroy Booker was a sharecropper while in Mississippi. He also held several other jobs during the course of his full life including, cold storage worker, coal hacker, and eighteen years as a steel melter; and
WHEREAS, in 1953, Elder Leroy and his wife, plus four of their children, joined his brother, Hosea, in Chicago; and
WHEREAS, Elder Leroy's church upbringing followed him to Chicago where he joined the Burning Bush Missionary Baptist Church under the tutelage of the Reverend Monroe Williams. At Burning Bush he served on the Deacon Board and began what would become his legacy of working with young ...
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