NAACP nominates actress with local ties
Tuesday, January 27, 2009
By AUDREY PARENTE, Staff writer

Made-up Easter Bunny skits for the family may have been her opening act. But actress Wendy Davis -- daughter of Harry and Lucy Davis of Palm Coast -- said her NAACP Image Awards nomination as Best Actress in a (TV) Drama Series for her role in "Army Wives" is a high point in her career.

She joins another actress with Palm Coast ties, Taraji P. Henson, an Image Awards nominee for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Motion Picture in her role in "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" as well as an Oscar nomination. The awards are scheduled for 8 p.m. Feb. 12 on Fox.

In "Army Wives," Davis plays Lt. Col. Joan Walker Burton, a dedicated career soldier.

"This has actually been my favorite character," said the longtime actress in a phone interview from Charleston, S.C., where "Army Wives" episodes are filmed. "It's the most challenging, with the most obstacles to overcome, portraying a high-ranking lieutenant colonel who has to prove herself in a society that says women aren't military leaders."

The 42-year-old actress has been through some tough times, said her mother, Lucy Davis, in a phone interview.

"We are proud of her perseverance. Wendy grew up in Maryland and participated in speaking competitions. When she was a little girl, she would create little family programs for Easter or Christmas," Davis said. "We are delighted that she has reached this level of achievement. It certainly has been very competitive, with some long dry years along with a few good years sprinkled in."

Not until the Image Awards nominee made up her mind to hit drama school at Howard University did her parents know she wanted to be an actress.

"She was in a play in elementary school, but we didn't realize she was serious about acting until she went to St. Paul College in Virginia -- her mother's college -- where she was named Miss Freshman of the Year and got a lot of publicity. That's when she decided to go to Howard," said the actress' dad, Harry Davis.

"Our son, Harry Davis Jr., will escort her to the awards," dad said. Harry Jr. lives in Los Angeles and also is an actor.

While Wendy Davis has acted in dozens of TV shows, including "Grey's Anatomy" and "Cold Case," she said two other peaks in her career come to mind.

"One was DreamWorks' very first one-hour drama, when it was a fledgling studio," Davis said of a short-lived series in 1996, "High Incident," which "nobody watched except my parents," she added. "It was cast by Steven Spielberg, and he was the greatest."

The other turning point was a critically acclaimed CBS project called "EZ Street" -- involving Paul Haggis, author of the screenplay "Million Dollar Baby," and director of "Crash" -- which Davis said set her bar higher.

Davis said she is honored by the nomination, especially since "the NAACP has had a big part in creating a change in our country."

Taraji P. Henson, whose mother Bernice Gordon lives in Palm Coast, also is excited about her movie-role nominations as the elderly mother of Brad Pitt, who ages in reverse.

"I am very excited, deeply honored and grateful," Henson said in an e-mail to The News-Journal on Thursday. "I thank Laray Mayfield, David Fincher, Frank Marshall and Kathleen Kennedy for giving me the opportunity to bring Queenie to life."

audrey.parente@news-jrnl.com


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