Former Melbourne police officer Joe Davis, known for his singing, community work, dies
J.D. GallopFriends and family will pay final tributes to Joe Nathaniel Davis, who patrolled the city streets as a Melbourne police officer, mentored countless youth and sang with Bill Pinkney’s Original Drifters, on July 22. Davis died July 8. He was 83.
Melbourne City Council Member Yvonne Minus honored Davis during Tuesday night’s regular meeting, calling him “a community icon.”
“He was a Melbourne police officer. A smooth crooner with the Original Drifters, a professional singing group. He worked at Pan Am. He loved and worked with the Melbourne PAL kids, and worked with many other groups and organizations,” Minus said.
'Hooked on a singing cop':Original Drifter Joe Davis is no rolling stone
Davis’ death marks South Melbourne’s third “trailblazer” who the community has lost the past two years.
Eddie Taylor Sr., a radio personality who served as president of the Lipscomb Street Park Association for 40 years, passed away in October 2020. Lipscomb Park was renamed in his honor in April. Then Cleave Frink, former president of the South Brevard NAACP and a minister of Greater Life Fellowship Ministries, died in May 2021.
Davis was born in Melbourne and was known to sing doo-wop with friends on street corners. He was also well-known in the community for his work as a police officer and was instrumental, along with Frink, in the creation of the Community Relations Council in the late 80s. The council was formed to build better relations between law enforcement and city residents.
“We are deeply saddened by the loss of retired Director Joseph N. Davis as he was a pioneer of community policing, a respected police officer, community leader and friend,” Melbourne Police Chief David Gillespie said in a statement on Davis’ death. "He was instrumental in the creation of the Police Community Relations Council, which holds Town Hall-style meetings that provide the local community direct access to the Melbourne police chief and department members. These meetings have been held once a month since 1988,”
Davis, who attended Florida A&M University on a football scholarship, was hired on as an officer with the city back in 1971, a time of national social change.
“He was a pioneer for the community,” said Rodney Greene, president of the Brevard Veterans Coalition. “He looked out for us as kids, on duty and off duty,” the Melbourne resident recalled.
Davis, who went on the road to perform with the Original Drifters also formed a camaraderie with a group of local musicians, singing in nightclubs like Johnny’s Hide-A-Way across the Space Coast.
He retired from the police force in 1995. The Grant Street Community Center in south Melbourne was later renamed in Davis' honor.
A memorial for Davis will be held 11 a.m. Friday, July 22 at Macedonia Missionary Baptist Church, 2279 Lipscomb Street, in Melbourne.
Reporter Rick Neale contributed to this report.
J.D. Gallop is a Criminal Justice/Breaking News Reporter at FLORIDA TODAY. Contact Gallop at 321-917-4641 or jgallop@floridatoday.com. Twitter: @JDGallop.