John C. Davenport

John Carlyle Davenport, 59, of Bunnlevel, passed away peacefully on Monday, August 12, 2024 at Golden Years Nursing Home in Falcon, NC. 

John was born May 10, 1965 in Fayetteville, NC, and grew up in a close-knit military community in Spring Lake. After graduating from Pine Forest Senior High School in 1984, he attended one semester of college at East Carolina University before deciding that a college degree was not for him. After learning to play drums in junior high and high school, he taught himself several other instruments, including guitar, bass, and keyboards. He was a member of several local bands over the years, including Crosstown Traffic, Electric Church, Element, and JD and the Shoegazers, playing original music and covers of favorite bands like The Beatles, Led Zeppelin, Rush, and CCR. His job as a pizza cook gave him the flexibility to do what he really loved, play music.

John was born too late, as he had a lifelong love of late 60’s/early 70’s classic rock and roll and heavy metal muscle cars from the same era, especially Ford Mustangs. His other love was TV “wrestling,” which he and his brother David watched religiously several nights per week before David passed away in early 2019. John continued their tradition up until a few months before his death. John had a subtle but hilarious sense of humor and a quick wit, played Jeopardy like a champion, and was a next-level pro at celebrity impressions, particularly The Beatles. 

After being diagnosed with lung cancer in October 2022, John had a serious reaction to chemotherapy on Christmas day 2022. At the hospital that night, his heart stopped and he was revived, but was in intensive care on a respirator and dialysis. The doctors told his family he would be gone within a very short time, but “The Tenacious J” lived for another one year, seven months, and eighteen days. He probably set a record at Cape Fear Valley Hospital for length of stay, where he was an inpatient for 1 year and 3 months. After moving to Betsy Johnson Hospital in Dunn in early April 2024, their care enabled him to finally breath on his own and he was able to move to the Golden Years Nursing Home in Falcon, NC in June. Throughout his time in the hospitals and nursing home, his family members spent hours at his bedside, watching MotorTrend TV and the Game Show Network and reminiscing about happy childhood times. They are blessed to have had so much time with him before he passed away and now know way more about restoration of heavy metal muscle cars than any normal person has a right to know.

John was preceded in death by his father, David William Davenport, Sr.; sister, Barbara Lynne Davenport; and brother, David William Davenport, Jr. John is survived by his mother, Margaret Hodgdon Davenport; sisters, Dixie Lee Davenport and husband, Jayme Clark of Gahanna, Ohio, and Alicia B. (Lisa) Davenport of Durham, Connecticut; nephews, Christopher Frazier and Patrick Conn; nieces, Jennifer Conn and Alicia Gomez; great nephews, Trenton Frazier and Leo Frazier; and great niece, Makayla Gomez; and uncles and aunts Charles and Brenda Davenport of Fayetteville, Georgia; Henry and Alice Charles of Greensboro, North Carolina, Carl and Margaret Brenden of Columbus, Montana, Randyl and Patricia Cournoyer of Jaffrey, New Hampshire, Russell and Marie Kincaid of Milford, New Hampshire, and Arlene Hodgdon of South Berwick, Maine; and many cousins with whom John shared fun times in his youth. 

A memorial service will be held at 2:00 p.m. Thursday, August 15, 2024 at O’Quinn-Peebles-Phillips Funeral Home Chapel, 1310 S. Main St., Lillington, NC 27546. The family will receive friends immediately following the service at the funeral home. 

In lieu of flowers, memorials may be made to the Pine Grove Methodist Church at 53 Pine Grove Road, Spruce Pine, NC 28777, or any animal shelter of your choosing.