Davis has spent most of his life in Fentress County, a mostly rural county in the state's coal-mining region. He graduated from Tennessee Technological University in 1966 with a degree in agriculture. Davis, who now lives in the rural Fentress County village of Pall Mall, also owns a construction Business, Diversified Construction Co., which builds homes, apartments, and offices. Davis and his wife Lynda, an elementary school Teacher, have three daughters, Larissa, Lynn and Libby, and five grandchildren.