Douglas H. Davis, Sr. (1899-1934) was born in Zebulon, Georgia, to Jonathan A. Davis (1866-1935) and Etta Ogletree Davis (1868-1946). Davis had 11 siblings. He attended Griffin High School in Griffin, Georgia, but left school in his senior year to enlist in the United States Army Air Service. He graduated at the top of his military class and was commissioned a second lieutenant. Davis also became a flight instructor. He trained under and was a friend of Orville and Wilbur Wright. After discharge from the military in 1919, Davis sold and repaired airplanes, acquired a Waco Aircraft Company dealership before switching to Travel Air Manufacturing. Davis married Glenna Mae D'Hollosay (1904-2001) on December 25, 1925. They had one son, Douglas H. Davis, Jr. (1928-1962), who become a successful painter before dying in the Air France Boeing 707 crash on takeoff from Orly Field, Paris, on June 3, 1962. In 1930, Davis became president of Douglas Davis Flying Service and School of Aviation, located at Candler Field. A pioneer Atlanta aviator, Davis was killed after breaking the existing world speed record for a land plane at the National Air Races in Cleveland in 1934. Davis was inducted into the OX5 Club of America Hall of Fame in 1972 and the Georgia Aviation Hall of Fame in 1991.