1,000 Mourners Attend Funeral For Rep. Jo Ann Davis
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Jo Ann Davis was remembered Thursday as someone who grew up poor and worked her way from secretarial jobs to a seat in Congress, but never forgot the circumstances or the people from which she came.
About 1,000 people filled a large sanctuary of her home church, including Gov. Timothy M. Kaine, several dozen members of Congress and Virginia legislators, for a funeral service.
Davis, 57, died Saturday, two years after she was diagnosed with breast cancer. A Republican, she was elected to Congress from Virginia's 1st District in 2000 and had served in the Virginia House of Delegates before that.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}The most emotional tribute came from her closest friend on Capitol Hill, U.S. Rep. Sue Wilkins Myrick, a North Carolina Republican who found it hard to compose herself and wept as she remembered Davis.