Joe Davenport's Pastor Remembers a Good Man

By Dr. Josh Hunt/Special to the Anderson Observer

I asked Joe Davenport’s pastor at Anderson First Baptist Church, Dr. Josh Hunt, to provide comments on his memories. Here’s what he said:

Joe was a faithful and proud son of Anderson. Throughout his life, he was quick to give credit to the community leaders who made conscious decisions to invest in him.

He expressed a lifelong gratitude to the people in his life who took him under their wings after his father’s death when Joe was eight years old. He was a repository of local stories—regaling anyone who was fortunate enough to listen with stories of the characters who mentored him and built Anderson.

He was a vociferous networker, forming and nurturing friendships everywhere he went.

He was a caring friend to me. In 2012, he pestered our church staff to give him my cell phone number before we even moved to town so that he could touch base with me and let me know that he had been on the phone with the School Dist. 5 office and his friend Mike Mahaffey to get my wife, a school teacher, a job.

I loved the countless times over the years when he invited me to take him to lunch. He was caring and supportive.

He was always worried he wasn’t doing enough—enough for his community, enough for his church, enough for the people he loved, enough for God. He voiced this concern to me often. I always reassured him that his community and his church were better for his presence among us. And truly they were.

I will miss him, but I rejoice that my oft-repeated reassurances to him have now given way to the words spoken to him in heaven and echoed in many corners of his beloved Anderson: “Well done, good and faithful servant.”