Bettye Davis
Bettye Jean Davis was an American social worker and politician. She was the first African-American to be elected as an Alaska State Senator in 2000.
Davis was a Democratic Party member of the Alaska Senate, representing the K District from 2000 through 2013. She was defeated in the 2012 general election for state senate district M by Anna Fairclough. She was previously a member of the Alaska House of Representatives from 1991 through 1996. In April 2013 she was elected to the Anchorage School Board, a body on which she'd served non-consecutive terms in the 1980s and 1990s. Davis graduated from Elliott High School in Bernice, Louisiana. She received her bachelor's degree in social work from Grambling State University in 1972 and her nursing degree from Saint Anthony College of Nursing in 1961. Davis died at her home in Anchorage at the age of 80.
