A new Keith Avenue bridge has been named in honor of the man who started a nearby business that's been in operation for nearly six decades.

The Bill Davis Memorial Bridge was officially dedicated today (Friday, Oct. 2, 2020). Mayor Indya Kincannon, 3rd District City Councilwoman Seema Singh and other Council members, Davis family members and friends unveiled a replica of the bridge sign. The official green signs were installed earlier this week.



Bill Davis, a World War II Army Air Corps veteran, was an auto mechanic who opened a garage in the late 1950s at Western Avenue and Keith Avenue. The business grew from truck and machinery repair to hoses for heavy equipment, and is now Davis Hose & Supply. 

The new Bill Davis Memorial Bridge honors the business owner and community volunteer who died in 1988. The Tennessee Department of Transportation constructed the bridge, which carries the realigned Keith Avenue over railroad lines near the location of Mr. Davis’ business. The bridge was part of a state project to widen Western Avenue between Texas and Major avenues and improve its design. 

The City’s Public Property Naming Committee, chaired by Councilwoman Lauren Rider, approved a request by Mr. Davis’ family last November to name the new bridge in his honor.

According to the family, Mr. Davis was an Ohio native, but he took a liking to Knoxville after the war when the troop train he was riding stopped here for a layover. He contributed back to his adopted Tennessee city throughout the rest of his life, serving as Sunday School Superintendent at Beaumont Avenue Baptist Church in the 1970s and as Potentate of the Kerbela Shriners in 1983. He was active in charity work. 

When he was commander of the Shriners’ Legion of Honor, the military veterans built bleachers on the Tennessee School for the Deaf campus. Mr. Davis enjoyed playing Santa at church and Shriner children’s Christmas parties, and he was a member of the Lions Club and Elks Lodge.