Charles T. Davis (1888–1945)

Charles T. Davis was the first poet laureate of Arkansas.

C. T. Davis was born on March 26, 1888, at Dardanelle (Yell County). His father, lawyer Colonel Marcellus Davis, had established a newspaper, the Western Immigrant, at Dardanelle in 1876. His mother, Susan Johnston Davis, was a member of a prominent Yell County family. He had a sister, Winnie Davis. The 1940 census indicates that Davis had three years of college education, but where this took place is unknown.

From 1911 to 1915, Davis served as secretary to U.S. Representative Henderson Madison Jacoway. While living in Washington DC, Davis married Teresa Richmond. The marriage ended, and she remained in Washington with son Richmond Hill Davis. Their older son, Charles Thomas Davis Jr., became a journalist, for a time working as a reporter for the Arkansas Gazette.

Upon his return to Arkansas before World War I, C. T. Davis joined the staff of the Arkansas Gazette as a reporter. His first beat was North Little Rock (Pulaski County). During the war, he covered Camp Pike. He later became a Gazette associate editor. His “editorial paragraphs” were frequently reprinted in the Literary Digest and other publications.

Davis’s poetry column—“Jes’ Ramblin’ Aroun’”—first appeared on December 17, 1916, on the editorial page. Two of his poems appeared in The Anthology of Newspaper Verse for 1922. Newspaper poetry was common in the United States at least until the 1920s. These poems typically expressed conventional topics in simple forms. Edgar Guest is probably the best-known poet of the genre, but some prominent American poets got their start in newspapers. A collection of Davis’s poems was published by a former co-worker, L. C. Milstead, in 1923, and includes “In April,” “In the Death Cell,” “Autumn: A Sacrament,” and “Fishing Time.”

In 1919, the Gazette published a Centennial Edition. Davis’s centennial poem celebrates the lofty aims of journalism and the paper’s historic connection with the state:

One lit a rushlight in the ages gone,
Bearing it through the night with tireless hand,
And saw its flicker steady into flame
Spreading the Light, that men might understand.
And when it faltered in his failing grasp
Another took it up and bore it on.
Today we serve in priesthood on the fire
Clear and as constant as in years agone.
Behind our service lies a century…

In 1923, the Arkansas General Assembly passed concurrent resolutions naming Davis poet laureate of the state. It proclaimed:

“Whereas. It is always the purpose of our people to give the evidence of merit where merit is due; and

“Whereas. Extraordinary ability has been shown by a fellow citizen in the realm of poetry to the extent that his work has gained for him a position in this field unequaled in all the Southland; and

“Whereas. It is proper and fitting that official recognition be given to the genius that he has displayed, and which has won for his native state a position in the field of letters alongside that of the masters of this or any other country.”

It was the first such appointment. He held the office until his death in 1945. The position remained vacant until 1953, when Rosa Zagnoni Marinoni succeeded him.

In 1924, Davis married Kate Martin. In 1927, he formed C. T. Davis, Inc. The Gazette reported that its capital stock was $10,000 and that the corporation was established “with a view to making his work profitable as well as pleasurable to its readers.” The members of the corporation included prominent representatives of the financial, cultural, religious, and educational communities of Little Rock (Pulaski County). A collection titled Riders in the Sun was published in 1927 by Harold Vinal, Ltd., New York. This was apparently the only accomplishment of the corporation.

C. T. Davis died of influenza in Little Rock on December 21, 1945.

For more information:
Bailey, Susan L. “Poets Laureate of Arkansas.” Arkansas Historical Quarterly 49 (Spring 1990): 51–56.

Davis, C. T. Poems. Little Rock: 1923. Online at https://archive.org/details/poems00davi_1/ (accessed May 3, 2024).

Obituary of C. T. Davis. New York Times, December 22 ,1945, p. 19.

“C. T. Davis of Gazette Succumbs.” Arkansas Gazette, December 22, 1945, p. 1.

Storey, Celia. “He Was Well-Versed in Dialects.” Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, April 16, 2018. https://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2018/apr/16/he-was-well-versed-in-dialects-20180416/ (accessed May 3, 2024).

———. “Remember about C. T. Davis, Arkansas’ First Poet Laureate?” Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, October 29, 2023. https://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2023/oct/29/old-news-remember-about-ct-davis-arkansas-first/ (accessed May 3, 2024).

Ethel C. Simpson
University of Arkansas, Fayetteville