Truby Josephine Murphy Davis

Truby Murphy Davis passed away on November 19, 2025, at the age of 96 years old. She was born July 1, 1929, in the coalmining town of Slab Fork, Raleigh County, West Virginia. A daughter of Charles Fred and Josephine Bailey Murphy, Truby grew up in a loving home where she was close with her three brothers and two sisters. They were taught to be honest and to not lie or steal. Their home was the only farm in town located on a hill, but they were still able to grow beautiful vegetable gardens on that steep hillside and had chickens and a cow in the back. Truby was grateful for the protective nature of her father and the safety he provided for their family.

Bob Davis, the love of her life, first laid eyes on Truby in April of 1948 while taking his mother to church. Walking into the service a few minutes late, the only thing he noticed was Truby singing in the first row of the choir. (She claimed she wasn’t singing and was just mouthing the words). Bob said she was the prettiest woman he had ever seen. Their eyes kept meeting, and Truby kept looking away. During the Sunday school lesson, he tried to get her attention by tugging on her hair. A few days later, they went on their first date and were married 8 ½ months later on December 26, 1948. Bob said Truby was “my angel, my soul mate. She has saved my life. She’s saved my life many times. She is a great lady; I knew that the first time I ever met her. I was in love with Truby from the first time I ever saw her.” Their love was a love for the ages, and after being separated by death for almost 18 years, we know their reunion was glorious.

Truby’s deep faith began when she was a young girl as her grandmother read to her from the Bible and taught her about God. When Truby was 17 years old, she developed an abscess in her lung. While in the hospital, she overheard the doctors saying that she would not survive the infection. Truby prayed, pleading for God to let her live. She promised that if she was allowed to live, she would prove herself to Him. The sacred experience that followed her prayer was truly miraculous, leading her to live a holy and consecrated life. Several years later, after praying fervently about where to take her young family to church, two sister missionaries from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints came to her door. Before joining the church, Bob and Truby read the Book of Mormon together each night, studying and asking questions. They remembered holding and squeezing each other’s hands as they attended an investigator class where they first heard the doctrine of eternal marriage and learned that they could be sealed together forever. Truby loved the gospel of Jesus Christ. Her children and grandchildren all have memories of her sitting on the end of the couch with her feet propped on a kitchen stool, studying the pages of the Book of Mormon. She served for decades as a Primary teacher where she found immense joy teaching many children about Jesus Christ.

Truby loved family history and spent years of her life finding and connecting generations of her family. Through genealogy, she was able to build new friendships and corresponded via handwritten letters with numerous friends for years. Truby had a strong testimony of the temple; through her family history work, she helped many people receive the blessings of the temple.

Every spring, Truby’s yard blossomed as she carefully and diligently tended to her beautiful azaleas and dogwoods. Her green thumb was also showcased by the vegetable garden she planted each year. Many afternoons were spent with family, sitting on her blue picnic blanket or in the hammock, soaking in the magical rays of sunlight that shone through the leaves of her giant trees.

Truby prided herself on being a contributor and valued hard work. She spent many years working as a store clerk in a women’s dress shop and at Crown Drug and Eckerd in the beauty department. She loved getting to know the regular customers and spending time visiting with them. Her work family felt like real family, and we loved hearing stories about them. Truby truly was the embodiment of a strong, classy southern woman: in word, in deed, and always in appearance. Truby was stunning even in her final hours.

Many felt Truby’s love through her cooking. Known above all for her extraordinary potato salad, she won us all over with infinite specialties including hot milk cake, lazy daisy cake, gingerbread, pies, baked apples, creamed corn, beef stroganoff, country style steak, and her famous fudge. She loved to gather her family for Sunday dinners and holidays, especially Christmas Eve, where the dinner and Christmas punch were unmatchable. Christmas Eve at Nana and Papa’s (or Bob and Truby’s) was truly magical. Family crowded tight into their modest home to sing, to love, and to remember the true reason for the Christmas season as we celebrated the birth of our Savior.

Truby loved being a wife, mother, grandmother, and great-grandmother. She adored her three sons and her eyes always twinkled when she spoke of them. In her later years, she recounted missing her boys being young and said she loved to look out the window and imagine them running through the woods behind her house. Her love for her boys was truly unconditional. Truby always remembered birthdays and holidays, continuing to send cards and letters to her grandchildren and great-grandchildren until she was 95 years old. Birthday cards often included a few crisp dollars (endearingly referred to by many as “Nana Bucks”) which she decorated with little stickers. Cards were always signed “With love and prayers, Nana.” In her final months, she expressed immense gratitude to all three of her sons for gently and lovingly caring for her when she could no longer care for herself. She made sure we knew how much she loved every single one of us.

Truby was preceded in death by her loving husband Robert E. Davis, by her parents and a sister, Evelyn Murphy Meakin, and brothers Clinton, Earl, and Curtis Murphy. Surviving are her three sons: R. Victor Davis and companion Rickie Pryor of Winston-Salem, NC, Stanley C. Davis and wife Lorraine of Clemmons, NC, and Vince B. Davis and wife Cindy of Lewisville, NC, and a daughter-in-law Suzanne Davis of Mt. Pleasant, SC. Truby is survived by one grandson, Evan Davis; her six granddaughters, Lauren Simons, Natalie Smith, Alexis Nowak, Whitney Youngberg, Chelsea Marques, and Carly Morrison as well as Emily Cranford Lambert, who adopted Truby as her grandma; her sister, Eva Murphy Phelps; and her twelve great-granddaughters and ten great-grandsons.

Funeral services will be held at 12pm on Saturday, November 29, 2025, at The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints at 4260 Clinard Road, Clemmons, North Carolina 27012. The family will receive friends at 11am, one hour prior to the funeral service. Truby will be buried at Colfax Memorial Garden in Colfax, NC. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the LDS Humanitarian Aid Fund.