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Note: roscoe conkling 'r.c.' davis jr. was a cadet at west point military academy. . . and a talented musician and songwriter, who was widely popular with friends, co-workers and 'the ladies.' son of a highly respected naval engineer, he was lean and athletic. his music was performed at the academy's large broadway-style productions in the mid '30s. it was thought that a great career in the blossoming mass-media entertainment industry awaited him. he and his equally-energetic brother george seemed to make a fiery team and played many shows together, and the 2 were members of the original washington redskins marching band in the early 1930s. [note: george, my father, stated that r.c. 'dragged' him down to the auditions. interestingly, i found that the original redskins' band ('36-37) WAS the original nfl marching band.] r.c. and george are recorded as entering a copyright on an original piece of music, 'rhythm,' r.c. having written the music, his west point collaborators the words, and dad as publisher, in april 1935. [dad was in his senior year of GWU lawschool and was a skilled music transcriptionist] sadly, r.c. died of spinal meningitis just before graduation from west point class of '37. in 'hello earth!,' chapter 2 of the book, <i>messengers of the lost battalion</i>, roscoe davis' death is a cause of profound changes of mindset in his roommate and classmate, wood joerg, in combination with joerg's having been extensively 'hazed'. the inference is that hazing was a factor in davis' death. [this is unlikely, davis was what they call a 'class 1' or senior cadet at the time, and my father, who was his brother and closest friend outside of west point, surely would have mentioned this in our numerous conversations on the subject. more likely, joerg lost the protective/empathetic power of roscoe's presence just as hazing increased.] (orfalea, greg. <i>messengers of the lost battalion</i>. simon & schuster, 1999.)
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