09/01/2026
📜 **COLUMBUS COUNTY CONNECTIONS**
**THE TABOR CITY TEACHER WHO TAUGHT CHILDREN, THEIR PARENTS AND THEIR GRANDPARENTS**
Everlene Davis began teaching in Tabor City in 1956, when local schools were still segregated.
Nearly 70 years later, she was still inside the classroom.
Davis started her career at Douglass High School, Tabor City’s school for Black students. After integration, she moved to Tabor City High School and later South Columbus High School, where she taught family and consumer sciences.
In April 2025, WECT reported that Davis was 93 years old and still teaching.
During her extraordinary career, she taught multiple generations from the same Columbus County families. Some former students later sent letters telling her they would not have achieved their success without her.
Davis also kept statistics for the school’s basketball team and helped prepare punch for the prom.
She watched classroom technology change from chalkboards and typewriters to calculators, computers and Chromebooks. However, her expectations for students remained high.
Davis said she would continue teaching for as long as her health allowed because education was more than a job to her. It was her passion.
After beginning her career during segregation, Everlene Davis remained in Columbus County classrooms long enough to teach the children and grandchildren of her earliest students.