This article first appeared in the St. Louis Beacon, Aug. 24, 2012 - For more than 25 years, the Rev. Dorris Davis ran an emergency shelter that, itself, was often in a state of emergency. It caught fire – twice – once, during a celebration of a reopening following renovations. Sometimes, there was no heat in the winter nor air conditioning in the summer. It suffered several burglaries.
The primary source of funding was often Rev. Davis’s Social Security check.
Nevertheless, year in and year out, the shelter housed thousands of homeless men and helped countless families, especially at Christmas when many thought Santa would pass them by.
Rev. Davis, who opened the doors of his shelter in 1987 and fought every day thereafter to keep it open, died of complications of diabetes Monday (Aug. 20, 2012) at Memorial Hospital in Belleville. He was 67 and had lived in Washington Park, Ill.
A service for Rev. Davis will be held at noon Saturday at St. Matthew's Missionary Baptist Church in East St. Louis.
“He did (his work) quietly,” said Rev. Larry Rice, president of the New Life Evangelical Center in St. Louis. “He was right there on the front lines helping people in East St. Louis where there is tremendous need.”
The Dorris Davis Helping Hand Organization in East St. Louis, known to most simply as Helping Hands shelter was, despite the challenges, Rev. Davis’s embodiment of a dream because it did for others what someone had once done for him.
"When the Lord helps you get back on your feet, you need to help someone else,” he told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch in 2006.
‘A saint and a hero’
He’d left Helena, Ark., with a very different dream. Like many African Americans before him, and many after, he left the cotton fields of the south to seek his fortunes “up north.”
He arrived in East St. Louis during the 1960s, when the city was booming. He worked in the shipping department of the old Obear Nester Glass Co. and held several jobs with the city of East St. Louis.
He overindulged in the city life, and by 1980, he’d lost both his wife and his job.
"I used to be the biggest alcoholic East St. Louis ever had," he told the Post-Dispatch. "On the last job I had, I started drinking heavy. And then I became homeless and before I knew it, I was standing around a barrel trying to keep warm.”
He sought and received help from homeless shelters, including the New Life Evangelistic Center, run by the Rev. Larry Rice. Rev. Davis soon returned the favor.
“He volunteered here for a long time,” Rice said. “He rose from the ranks of homelessness.”
Rev. Davis became a minister and set about establishing his shelter. His friends at New Life helped.
Rice said his charity gave Helping Hands hundreds of dollars a month for years and helped out with food and other supplies.
They did so, Rice said, because Rev. Davis was “both a saint and a hero.”
“Dorris reached out in the midst of his own afflictions,” Rice said. “Even when he couldn’t get out of bed, he sent someone over here to get fans for people this summer.”
Rice was alluding to the diabetes that caused Rev. Davis to lose both legs. He had been hospitalized last month for his second leg amputation. He had also suffered serious injuries in a car accident in 2006.
One-man show
Helping Hands began life at 2570 Waverly Avenue and later moved to its most recent home, a 14-room, two-story building at 1501 Winstanley Avenue. The residence was donated by the late Myrtle Officer of Officer Funeral Home in East St. Louis.
During flush times, the area’s only male shelter housed as many as 60 men. Those times were few and far between.
Early on, Rev. Davis estimated that he needed approximately $100,000 to operate. It’s unlikely he ever hit that mark.
It was, from the beginning, pretty much a one-man show, but he dreamed big.
“He did so much by himself,” Rice said. “His heart was much bigger than what he was often able to do.”
He tried to do it all: Easter egg hunts, Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners, toy giveaways, clothing drives, and back-to-school supplies for children.
“He and I also organized several marches against violence” said Washington Park Mayor James T. Jones, “including (protesting the killing) of our former mayor, John Thornton (April 2010).”
Rev. Davis cobbled together resources by calling on a far-flung and diverse supporting cast.
His benefactors over the years included area police departments, local and federal grant-makers, corporations, East St. Louis residents and people from nearby communities, including the city of St. Louis. Many of those same communities benefited from his efforts.
Rev. Davis even received support from the United Black Drag Racers Association and the late Minnesota millionaire, Percy Ross, who gave out chucks of a few hundred dollars each to people in need.
End of an era
Rice laments that with Rev. Davis’s passing and Helping Hands likely closed for good, the homelessness crisis will deepen.
Rice led approximately 50 homeless people in a 12-mile memorial march on Friday morning (Aug. 24) to honor Rev. Davis and to inspire homeless people to do what Rev. Davis did.
“We won’t ever be able to replace Rev. Davis,” Jones said. Rev. Davis had recently served as a trustee of the Village of Washington Park where Jones is president. “He had an overwhelmingly positive effect on this community. He had his work cut out for him and he performed it well.
“He was respected as a man and as a politician; today that’s something that’s very rare,” Jones added. “He was not only a co-worker, he was my friend.”
Rev. Davis remained debonair, rarely seen without his signature cowboy hat, and never sought to reclaim his former life. Instead, he accepted a lifelong mission.
He told the Post-Dispatch in 1990, “This is what the Lord wants all of us to do. We are to look out for those that can't look out for themselves.”
Rev. Davis, the youngest of eight, was predeceased by his parents and siblings.
His survivors include his wife, Nina Robinson Davis, of Washington Park; a daughter, Lydia D. Nickerson of East St. Louis; four grandchildren, and two great-grandchildren.
Visitation will be 10 a.m. to noon on Saturday at St. Matthew's Missionary Baptist Church, 2908 Louisiana Blvd., in East St. Louis. The funeral immediately follows. Burial will be at Carmel Cemetery in Belleville.