RAY T. DAVIS, 85 4-term Mahoning County sheriff dies

Davis was a city councilman and served as a secretary to the mayor.
YOUNGSTOWN -- Ray T. Davis, a four-term Mahoning County sheriff, died Monday morning in Shepherd of the Valley Care Center in Austintown.
Davis, 85, was a World War II Army veteran who lost his left hand in a training accident. He first made news in March 1950 when he was chosen as secretary to Youngstown Mayor Charles P. Henderson.
Davis attended Washington School and graduated from Chaney High School, where he starred on the basketball team, which won the Northeast Ohio title in 1935 and the city championship in 1936.
He received a bachelor of science in business administration from Youngstown College in 1950.
A Republican, Davis was elected a 5th-Ward councilman in 1957.
He entered the sheriff's race in November 1959 and went on to win four terms. In 1960, Davis formed a motorcycle unit in the sheriff's department that participated in the 1961 inauguration of President Kennedy.
In 1970, he received recognition from other county sheriff's departments for his efforts during the campus upheaval at Kent State University.
How career ended
In November 1975, a Mahoning County grand jury subpoenaed 75 former jail inmates to determine their treatment and the jail's operation.
Davis testified for 21/2 hours and intimated afterward that the grand jury action was political in nature. In March 1976, he answered a contempt-of-court charge, admitting six violations of rules governing the operation of the county jail. Seventeen other accusations of mismanagement were dismissed.
Davis' time as sheriff ran out at the end of 1976. He lost in the GOP primary to Paul L. Grimes, a former Ohio State Highway Patrol trooper. Michael Yarosh, a Democrat, won the election.
Davis' "flower fund" records were given to the FBI in February 1979. Deputies complained that the money was actually a slush fund for political purposes.
A federal grand jury indicted Davis and four of his top administrators in July 1979 on charges of bribery, extortion and racketeering. He was found guilty on all counts in October 1979 and after unsuccessful appeals served from June 1983 to November 1984 in prison.
He leaves his wife, the former Janice C. Wilson, three daughters, a son, three sisters, six grandchildren and five great-grandchildren.
Services will be at 11 a.m. Friday at Higgins-Reardon Funeral Home, Boardman-Canfield chapel.