Barbara Davenport

Barbara Davenport was born in 1934 in Long Beach, California, where her father was the Long Beach Director of Recreation and where she grew up on athletic courts, football and track fields, baseball diamonds, playgrounds, and especially the beach. She married Bob Davenport in 1953 while they were both students at UCLA, and they had their first two children, Dani and Dane, there before settling in Upland, Indiana, in 1959, when Bob became the football coach at Taylor University. Though it took her many years to adjust to small-town life and long, cold winters, she came to believe that God wanted her in Upland and worked to make it her home. She helped bring kindergarten to the Eastbrook School District, worked to ensure elementary schools had playgrounds, coordinated and coached local summer softball leagues for girls, and started a summer day camp called Fun in the Sun that combined games with learning about Jesus. Active in Upland's Helping Hand ministry, the Pregnancy Help Center, Upland Community Church, and Kids Hope, she worked to meet community needs wherever she saw them. She also co-founded Wandering Wheels with Bob Davenport in 1966 and served as a team leader for cross-country and overseas bicycle trips, reflecting her love of travel, which also shaped the special trips she took with each grandchild at age 10. Guided throughout her life by her relationship with Jesus, she began a women's prayer group at Taylor in the early 1960s that met on Thursdays to pray for Taylor faculty and staff, and the group continued to meet for many years. She completed her undergraduate degree at Taylor in 1988, earned a Master of Arts degree from Ball State in 1989, worked at Anderson University as an assistant registrar, became registrar at Taylor University in 1993, moved in 1998 to Taylor's AIM program for at-risk students, and retired in 2004. After her parents died, she established a football scholarship in their name. She died in December 2021 and was survived by her children Dani, Dane, Daphne, and Dawn, along with 14 grandchildren and 11 great-grandchildren.

Upland, Indiana · United States