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Alice L. Davenport, first Black schoolteacher in Norristown, community activist, counselor, and mentor, has died at 103

She believed "to whom much is given, much will be required," and she spent her life finding new and effective ways to render service to her students and community.

Mrs. Davenport referred to her hometown of Washington as "God’s Country" but also grew to feel right at home in Norristown.
Mrs. Davenport referred to her hometown of Washington as "God’s Country" but also grew to feel right at home in Norristown.Read moreCourtesy of the family

Alice L. Davenport, 103, of Norristown, the first Black schoolteacher in the borough, founding director of Montgomery County’s Equal Opportunity Program, guidance counselor, volunteer, and mentor, died Wednesday, Feb. 1, of failure to thrive at Sunrise of Lafayette Hill senior living center.

Mrs. Davenport grew up in Washington, joined her husband, Horace, in Norristown in 1950, and made it clear right away she was going to impact people’s lives. She became the first Black teacher in Norristown in 1952, taught later at Germantown Friends School, and returned to Norristown in the early 1980s as a guidance counselor and tutor.

She focused on students in kindergarten through third grade and often shared her own experiences as examples of life outside the classroom.

“Her special expertise was her patient ability to bring out the latent reader in her young charges,” her family said in a tribute.

Mrs. Davenport recorded one of the highest scores ever on her teacher certification exam in Washington and added to her resumé in Norristown by taking advanced education summer classes at the University of Pennsylvania, Vassar College, and Howard, Northwestern, and Temple Universities. She augmented her lesson plans one summer by studying whales in Massachusetts, and she and her husband traveled to Italy several times for summer study programs in the Italian culture.

Outside the classroom, Mrs. Davenport was founding director in 1964 of the Equal Opportunity Program in Montgomery County, now the county’s Office of Equal Opportunity. There, she developed the local Head Start program that provides assistance in early childhood education, health, nutrition, and parent involvement to low-income families.

She believed to whom much is given, much will be required. Her daughter Bev said: “For her, giving back was a sense of duty.”

She served on the board of directors for Montgomery Hospital, the Norristown Public Library, George Washington Carver Community Center, and Day Care Association of Montgomery County. She founded Friends of the Library, sat on the advisory committee of the Youth Service Bureau, and consulted on the infant/family project of the Child Study Program at Montgomery Hospital.

Among her many awards, Mrs. Davenport won the 1982 Montgomery County-Norristown Public Library Award of Appreciation, 1998 Montgomery County Chamber of Commerce Humanitarian of the Year, 1999 Montgomery Bar Association Outstanding Public Service Award, and 2009 NAACP Award for Education and Community Service. She retired from teaching at Germantown Friends in 1977 and lessened her volunteer work in 2000 as her health declined.

“Children and learning fed Alice’s heart and soul,” her family said. “Having a new generation of young ones to educate and learn from helped to keep her spirit lively.”

Born Nov. 19, 1919, Alice Iola Latney grew up in Washington, attended lots of Negro League baseball games with her father, and graduated from Dunbar High School in 1936. She earned a bachelor’s degree from Miner Teachers College, now the University of the District of Columbia, and a master’s degree in guidance and counseling later at West Chester University.

She met Horace Davenport through a mutual friend, and they married in 1944. She remained in Washington while he took graduate classes at Penn and joined him later in Norristown, where they had daughters Alice, Bev, and Nina, and son Champ. Her husband died in 2017.

Mrs. Davenport was active for more than seven decades at Siloam Baptist Church and a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority and the Philadelphia chapter of Smart Set social club. She rooted enthusiastically for the Phillies and published several letters to the editor at The Inquirer about the team.

She was interested in art and liked to entertain, cook, and garden. She even gave the commencement address at West Chester when she earned her master’s degree.

Her cousin Nikky Finney said Mrs. Davenport was “from a club of women the earth will never see the likes of again.”

In addition to her children and cousin, Mrs. Davenport is survived by three grandchildren, two great-grandchildren, and other relatives. Two sisters and two brothers died earlier.

A memorial service is to be held later.

Donations in her name may be made to the Montgomery County-Norristown Public Library, c/o Cliff Hirst, 1001 Powell St., Norristown, Pa. 19401.