* Elvera S. Davis; Dancer, Mother of Sammy Davis Jr.

Elvera Sanchez Davis, 95, former dancer and mother of Sammy Davis Jr. Born in Harlem, Davis was a tap dancer who performed in the chorus of a vaudeville troupe headed by Will Mastin. Known as Baby Sanchez, she danced at the Lafayette Theater in Harlem and in the chorus line at the Apollo. She met and married Sammy Davis Sr., the lead dancer in the Mastin troupe, in 1923. Son Sammy Jr. was born two years later. He traveled with his parents and made his stage debut at 3. By age 10, Sammy Jr. was a tap-dance prodigy, trained and raised by his father, who had custody of the child after he and Elvera Davis divorced. Davis danced professionally until the early 1940s, retiring when the Apollo disbanded its dance chorus. She moved to Atlantic City, N.J., where she worked at the Club Harlem and Gracie’s Little Belmonte as a barmaid. She continued to dance informally into her 90s. She remained a prominent figure in the New York tap dance world, serving for the past decade as an advisor to the New York Committee to Celebrate National Tap Dance Day. Sammy Davis Jr. died in 1990 at the age of 64. On Sept. 2 at her home in Manhattan.