By Clint Confehr

Senior Staff Writer

Nearly three weeks after Lewisburg's May 7 election, Councilman Hershel Davis will celebrate his 80th birthday.

His decision against running for a third term on the council became evident with his down home explanation: "I've got too much age on me."

Those words at City Hall's front door came after one more monthly council meeting.

"There are three more before it's over," Davis said Friday.

Three candidates are running for the Ward 2 seat. Politics abhors a vacuum. For Davis, life after politics holds a promise of peace and tranquility.

"We're puzzle people," he said reaching for another jigsaw puzzle he completed with his wife, Nancy. He's mounted, coated and framed several of them to preserve the accomplishment. It's almost like making sure a repaired heating unit stays fixed.

For decades, Davis was a maintenance man, usually the supervisor. For nearly 20 years, he was the county schools' maintenance chief. During that time, several schools were built. With a request that he not become a central figure in public discussions on a new school building program, the great-grandfather of five made some observations.

"If we have the money, I'd say, 'Build them,'" Davis commented. "But if we don't; don't. I'd proceed with caution."

County schools were built to accommodate additions. Chapel Hill Elementary School has an addition, Davis noted. Two elementary schools and a high school were built in his time and Connelly School was closed.

"They could add on to Oak Grove," Davis said. "I think it would be a lot less money to add on than to build from scratch."

Additions here and a new school in Chapel Hill are under consideration.

"With some of the new industry coming in, we might have the tax base. We've got some good people working on it," he said, naming Economic Developer Greg Lowe and members of the city's Industrial Development Board.

Others saw plants close. Davis was assigned to close some of them.

After graduating from Berlin School, Davis made Genesco shoes for two years. For the next 15-1/2 years, he worked for Borden Milk Co. His two-year Army hitch almost sent him to Korea. Instead, he stayed stateside and made napalm. Eventually, young executives ordered Borden plants closed in Lewisburg, Shelbyville, Columbia, Decherd, Gainesboro, Tenn., and Hopkinsville, Ky.

From Borden, Davis went to work for Dairyman, then Heil Quaker and Crepaco, maintaining dairy product machines. Then, he worked at it for himself until he got the county job.

Born in his parents' Berlin home on May 27, 1933, Davis remembers when there were two stores in Berlin. He worked at one. His father, Everett, built one of the stores. His mother, Cassie Mae, died when he was 10. Davis' stepmother was Vester Crick.

Hershel and Nancy Davis have four sons: Steve, Scott, Stanley and Sheldon. Hershel and Nancy married in June 1954 and built their home on Mooresville Pike at White Drive in 1959, three years after he got out of the Army.