Fulham Davies

Fulham Fairchild Davies, known as Ki Davies (February 22, 1890–February 18, 1973), was an Arkansas businessman who in 1923 opened the Merrill Lynch office in Little Rock. He managed to keep his affiliate of the then Fenner and Beane (later Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith) intact during the Great Depression at a time when such offices in many other cities that size had failed.

Biography
Davies was born in Helena, Montana, to Robert Geddes and Margaret Fulham Davies. His paternal grandfather, Anthony Harpin Davies, was a plantation owner in Lake Village, the seat of Chicot County in the southeastern corner of Arkansas. Anthony Davies was also the president of the First Arkansas Bank and a member of both the Arkansas Territorial Convention and the first Arkansas General Assembly, formed at statehood in 1836. Robert Davies incorporated Hot Springs, the resort city and county seat of Garland County, and served as the first city attorney there.

Davies launched his career in Oklahoma as a telegraph operator in the stock brokerage business. Before he opened the Little Rock Merrill Lynch office, he had operated a Fenner and Beane branch at Hot Springs, and earlier he had been a telegraph operator at Ottawa, Canada, during two sessions of the Canadian Parliament.

Davies was also involved in community theater, his original interest sparked by an Elks Club production. In the early 1950s, Davies, made his last appearance on stage at a Kiwanis International minstrel show. He was involved in a motion picture venture with a partner in Hot Springs, and the pair produced a silent documentary entitled "The Human Shield". Davies directed the film and played the lead role. During the production, he met Aline Lower, whom he married thereafter.

Davies was a member of the Trinity Episcopal Cathedral, the Little Rock Club, Rotary International, and the Merrill Lynch Quarter Century Club. After World War II, he was an American Red Cross volunteer at the Veterans Administration hospital in North Little Rock.

Davies died in Plant City near Tampa, Florida, four days before his 83rd birthday. He was survived by three daughters, Margaret Cameron Davies Carner (1923–1997), married to Joseph Norbert Carner, from Little Rock but of Tallahassee, Florida, at the time of her death; Alice D. Harris (1916–1992), married to James R. Harris, of Tampa, and Kilene D. Speck (1921–1988), then of Plant City and later of Grant, Florida, and seven grandchildren. A son-in-law, Jefferson W. Speck, was a World War II POW and the 1950 and 1952 Arkansas Republican gubernatorial nominee against the Democrats Sid McMath and Francis Cherry, respectively.