Growing up, Lynn Davis said she had “no plans” for her future.
Her future, however, seems to have worked out well for her, as she is now chairman of the Malvern/Hot Spring County Chamber of Commerce Board of
Directors. She is also a member of the Malvern City Council and the admissions coordinator and marketing director at Encore Healthcare and Rehabilitation in Malvern, where she has been employed for 17 years.
“I graduated from Malvern High School and headed off to Henderson State University [in Arkadelphia], not knowing what I wanted to do,” said Davis, 54. “I lacked 12 hours to graduate, but I left without graduating.
“I am really happy with what I do now,” she said. “I do love my job. I get to meet so many nice people, and to help them.
“I know how hard it is to put someone into a nursing home,” she said. “I know what they are going through.”
Davis said Encore is a 95-bed nursing home and rehabilitation facility.
“We are a nonprofit,” she said. “We have been in town for 60-plus years.
“We just recently built a new facility, next to the Malvern Community Center on West Moline Street.”
Davis said Encore has been a member of the chamber for quite awhile.
“I represented Encore as a chamber member for about five years before I joined the board [in 2012],” she said. “I joined the executive committee in 2015, served as first vice chairman in 2016, and next thing I know, they said, ‘You’re next,’” referring to the 2017 chairmanship.
During the past few years, Davis has been on several chamber committees, including the Bingo Bonanza, annual chamber banquet and new-member ribbon-cuttings committees.
“The one thing Lynn does every month [on her own] is greet everyone at the door at our monthly chamber breakfast,” said Jennifer Eubanks, administrative assistant for the chamber.
“Everyone loves seeing her friendly smile. People will always comment when she isn’t standing at the door. They are sad they didn’t get their hug, or they are sad they didn’t see her pretty smile. … Her sweet demeanor and smile are infectious,” Eubanks said.
“As chamber board chairman, I want us to have a good year,” Davis said.
“Our annual banquet did well as a fundraiser; it was a sell-out. We really knocked it out of the ballpark,” she said.
“Our Bingo Bonanza is set for April 21 at the Malvern Community Center,” she said. “It is a great draw and a great fundraiser. A lot of work goes into it.
“We have been talking about a fall fundraiser, but we haven’t got anything lined up yet. Of course, Brickfest is coming up, too [on June 23-24]. It’s not too early to start planning for that.”
As board chairman, Davis said, she and the other chamber leaders want to increase the chamber’s membership.
“The chamber’s goal is always to help our members and give them an incentive to be here in Hot Spring County,” she said. “I think we are shy of 300 members right now. We are maintaining our status quo, but I would like to see us grow.”
“Lynn’s pretty busy between her work at Encore and on the City Council, but as chairman of the board, she works closely with me,” said Lance Howell, chamber executive director. We’re working on a special program for economic
development.
“We are working with the Malvern/Hot Spring County Economic Development Corp. on the Prospect Readiness Education Program (PREP), which is offered through the Arkansas Economic Development Commission.”
According to the AEDC website, arkansas
edc.com, PREP “is designed to offer communities
hands-on training in all aspects of the economic-
development prospect visit. PREP provides the local economic-development team with training and resources to properly prepare for, execute and follow up on prospect visits to their respective community.”
Howell said the chamber has started the process of applying to participate in this program.
“Rick McClure is the Malvern/Hot Spring County EDC chairman,” Howell said, adding that several communities in the state have completed the program.
“As an alderman, Lynn has a lot of the information on the city and county that is needed for this program,” Howell said. “We have already had some PREP meetings. A lot of community folks — the chamber, the school system, college representatives, utility representatives, bankers and more — have stepped up, hoping to build a good database of relevant information so that we can answer prospective businesses interested in coming to our area accurately and quickly.
“We are still a few months away before completing this program,” Howell said. “By doing this, however, we will be a lot better prepared to talk to prospective businesses.”
In addition to her work with the Malvern/Hot Spring County Chamber of Commerce, Davis is also a member of the Malvern Rotary Club.
Additionally, she is a city alderman for Ward 2.
“I was elected in 2014,” she said. “I had never been involved in politics before. I had opposition. I ran as a Republican and against another Republican, and then in the general election, I ran against a Democrat.
“My platform was based on change for Malvern,” she said. “I have two children who live in Malvern. I want to see our kids stay here. I am tired of kids having to go somewhere else to get work. We have to stand up and say, ‘Enough is enough.’
“I want to make Malvern better. I want it to be like it used to be.”
Born in San Marcos, Texas, Davis is a daughter of Nelson Bailey and the late Serena Bailey. Davis has a sister, Karin Grimes of Fort Smith, and a brother, Dennis Bailey of Malvern.
“I’m an Army brat,” she said, smiling. “My dad was from Malvern.”
She graduated from Malvern High School in 1980.
“I attended Henderson but did not graduate,” she said. “I married my high school sweetheart, John Davis, who graduated from Malvern High School the same year I did. We started dating when we were juniors in high school. We got married in 1984.”
The Davises have been married 33 years. They have three children.
Their son, Phillip Davis, 30, and his wife live in Malvern. Lynn and John’s older daughter, Paige Anderson, 28, and her husband, Shane Anderson, live in Benton. The Davises’ younger daughter, Bethany Davis, lives in Malvern.
“I had an in-home day care in Memphis for 10 years. I had six kids, plus my own. I was ready for adults,” Davis said.
“We moved back to Malvern in 1993-94. When we first moved back, I worked at the First Baptist Church Children’s Center. That was still working with kids,” she said.
“I knew kids,” she said, laughing.
Although she is not quite old enough to retire, Davis said she has given it some thought.
“My mom and dad were huge Red Cross volunteers,” she said. “They spent hundreds of hours doing disaster relief after tornadoes and floods. That’s something I would like to do when I retire.”
She said her dad retired after “doing lots of odd jobs” in Malvern.
“He also had a little convenience store in Malvern,” she said.
She said her parents “always taught us kids to help others.”
The Davises attend Second Baptist Church in Malvern. “I grew up there,” she said. “I’ve been in and out and lived other places, but that’s my home church. We are very active there.”
She is involved in Second Hand Sisters at her church, which, she said, is a community outreach.
“It’s a committee for the ladies,” she said. “We have two retreats a year. We go to the Baptist church camp at Lonsdale. “We do a lot with the First Step adult program,” she said. First Step Arkansas Inc. operates six facilities, including one in Malvern, providing services to adults and children with developmental disabilities.
“We get Christmas gifts for the adults,” she said. “We also do a Thanksgiving dinner for the adults and a Christmas dinner for those who live in the apartments.”
The Davises also take youth trips with their church.
“We are going to Newcomb, New Mexico, this year,” she said. “We have been to Madison, Wisconsin, for the past two years, so this trip will be something different. We will be in Arizona,
out in the middle of nowhere, helping build some buildings and conduct Bible school. My husband will drive the bus; I will be a chaperone and teacher. We are taking 25 kids.”