Franklin youths touched neighbors, friends
Published in the Home News Tribune 05/15/05

FRANKLIN - He was a bubbly kid and a great friend. She was a beautiful girl and always in a good mood.

That's what grieving neighbors said yesterday about Myles Davis and his sister Courtney, the brother and sister who died early Friday morning in a hotel fire.

"They were a very tight-knit family," said Maria Rivera, who lived down the street from the family until a few months ago, when the Davises sold their home on South Groesser Place in preparation for a move to North Carolina.

"They were well-loved, great people," said neighbor John Delgado.

Myles, 11, and Courtney, 16, died in a fire early Friday morning at the Staybridge Suites on Davidson Avenue. Investigators believe a cigarette that was tossed into a pile of mulch near a wooden staircase ignited the fire. Four others were injured, including the children's mother, Irene Laverne Davis, who was taken to St. Barnabas Hospital in Livingston. Known to her friends simply as Laverne, she was listed in critical but stable condition yesterday.

Neighbors said Wayne Davis, the children's father and Laverne's husband, had gotten a job as an IT manager near Durham, N.C. Laverne and the kids had planned to stay at the Staybridge until the end of the school year and then join Wayne in North Carolina. Maria Rivera said she picked Wayne up at the airport when he flew in Friday to be with his wife.

Maria's son Mike Rivera, 12, recalled his friend Myles.

"He was a great friend. We played outside, played video games, we did everything," Mike said.

Myles, a sixth-grader at Hillcrest Elementary School, went with Mike and Mike's father, Will Rivera, to the St. Matthias Carnival Thursday night; Courtney was going to go the next night with her friends.

Courtney, a junior on the junior varsity basketball team at Franklin High School, was very well-liked, high school principal Orvyl Wilson said yesterday.

"She was a good student, all-around a good person," Wilson said.

Wilson said counseling services were offered to students Friday and will resume tomorrow for as long as deemed necessary.

"The library was packed," said Danny Rivera, 17, Maria and Will's older son, about the counseling sessions. "She had no enemies."

With permission from Wilson and the girl with whom Courtney shared a locker, Danny looked in Courtney's locker yesterday for a picture of her they could use to print memorial T-shirts. Instead, he found only a baseball card with Myles' picture on it.

"I'm going to miss her," said Danny.

Neighbors said they had planned to hold a going-away party for the family early next month.