Davis, a well-known Spokane photographer and current chairman of the Spokane Arts Commission, remembers feeling immense relief at the news.

“It’s not that I had a terrible childhood, it’s just that he and I never got along,” he said.

Of course, he had questions. Lots of them. But answers were in short supply.

He grew up in an Air Force family with an older brother and a younger sister. His parents had an often troubled relationship and have since divorced.

In 1965, his father was sent to Germany ahead of the family. His mom went to Virginia to stay with her brother. Her brother had an Army buddy that she liked. They had a brief relationship and then the soldier was sent to Vietnam, not knowing a child had been conceived. When she joined her husband in Germany, she was four months pregnant with Davis.

After the revelation, Davis said, “I started looking. I started asking. I wanted to know what he (my father) looks like, how he behaves, his mannerisms, his health history.”

But his mother could only tell him three things. The man’s name was Jeff or Geoff Walker. She thought he was from upstate New York, and he drove truck in the Army.

In the days before the internet, this was far too little information to find any relevant leads. Full story. Cindy Hval/SR

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