'Doyle Louis Davenport was born November 4, 1933 to Virgil Lawrence Davenport and India Alice Worley Davenport. He was the sole surviving child of 6 infant births and his mother passed away at the birth of his last sibling when Doyle was only 4 years old. Virgil re-married about a year later to Byon Cooper Davenport who was a wonderful mother to him for the rest of her life. He was raised in the Coopersville community of Wayne County on a farm where they had mules, cows, hogs, and chickens.
He was saved and joined the Canadas Creek Baptist Church when he was 14 years old then later joined Immanuel Baptist Church where he was a member until his death.
Doyle graduated from Wayne County High School in 1951 where his favorite subjects were math and chemistry and he enjoyed playing baseball as a 1st baseman and pitcher. After a short time in Indiana helping his aunt and uncle on their farm, he decided to attend college at Cumberland College. While there he continued his studies of math and chemistry,
but after a year and a half he ran out of money. He and a friend then went to Sydney Ohio and started working for a company that made Westinghouse coffee pots. There he was assigned his own lab where he tested the right mix of copper, nickel, and chrome and worked with acids.
In 1954 he was called to serve in the Army. Most of his time was spent in Karlsruhe Germany as a Command Radio Operator. After returning home, he continued college but got very sick and withdrew. From that point on, most of his career was spent in the garment industry where he retired as Cutting Room Foreman at Gregory Shirt Company.
On July 14, 1957 he married the love of his life, Janice Gregory Davenport. To their marriage they had two daughters: Dana Hurd married to Billy and Jana Iddings married to Jonathan. He had three grandchildren: Brandon and Mallory Hurd and Luke Iddings. He also had two great-granddaughters: Ashtyn and Lynden.
Doyle loved to bowl and was in several mixed and all men teams. Through his time bowling he met and became friends with many people in the community.
One of the greatest highlights of his life was being a part of the quartet at Immanuel Baptist Church. He loved gospel music and enjoyed singing and traveling with the guys in the group. He also loved to sing with his family and choir.
He was an avid reader who loved to read the Reader's Digest and National Geographic among other things, especially the Bible. The family isn't sure where he gained all his knowledge or how he retained it all, but they were constantly amazed at all the things he knew and could remember, all the way up to his passing. They are going to greatly miss asking him about all types of things and places, because he always seemed to have the answers.
In the end, when he couldn't get out as much, he enjoyed calling and checking on his friends and family. He was also an avid U.K. basketball fan who loved to watch the games and chat about all the events surrounding the games.
He is going to be greatly missed by all his friends and family, but we take comfort in knowing we will see him again someday soon.',