ST. LOUIS (KMOX) - After more than 45 years, Fox 2's Elliott Davis is calling it a career, with Davis announcing Monday on his Facebook he is going to retire in August. His last show is set for Aug. 2.
"I'm enjoying the stories I am doing and I'm enjoyed the work, but after 45 years, I just had a feeling of 'you know what, it's just time to go,'" Davis told KMOX's Michael Calhoun on Total Information AM. "At 72-years-old, I feel like I've accomplished a lot with all the help that I have, I believe that we have accomplished a lot and I would like to spend more time with my granddaughter (whose lives in Atlanta)."
Davis has been a longtime presence in the St. Louis-area, growing up in the St. Louis-area, attending Vashon High School. Davis started at Fox 2 in May 1980 as a weekend writer/editor. Over the next 45 years, Davis would become a trusted figure in St. Louis, with his signature "You Paid For It" segments and investigations that have seen Davis work to expose government waste of taxpayer's money over the years.
Davis says the start of "You Paid For It" came when a former FOX 2 News Director saw a similar idea takes a hold in Washington state. Davis said, originally, nobody wanted to sign on to it, but Davis thought he would be a natural fit to do it since he was already doing some investigative work at the station.
"I liked investigative reporting and so I said 'sure I'll do it along with covering fires, floods, and all the other stuff,'" said Davis. "But he said 'No, I want you to focus on this' and with the news director backing, we started doing these stories and 'You Paid for It'."
Davis discussed some notable "You Paid For It" stories over the years which included one time when his cameraman/photographer Larry Washington got shot while he and Washington were investigating a coin company that was taking advantage of people.
"We were out and we were shooting, then we hear pops," Davis remembers.
"Then Larry said 'I'm shot'. We had to make that drive to the hospital. Larry, who was a old Vietnam vet, insisted on driving the car, and it was swerving through traffic...Larry was fainting out and then we had to pull over and I took over the wheel and we drove to the hospital. Larry fortunately survived that and then he actually came back to work with me on "You Paid For It" 18 months later. But it was a pretty serious shoulder wound. That was by far the most dramatic moment in my entire career."
Another story he remembers working on "You Paid For It" was when he and Washington got thrown in jail while they were investigating a story regarding the now-defunct Wellston School District.
"A officer came in and said 'you can't be here with a camera' and I asked 'why not?'," said Davis. "He proceeded to slap cuffs on Larry for having the camera. When I asked why he slapping cuffs on Larry, he then proceeded to slap the cuffs on me. We wounded up getting hauled to Hillsdale Jail. Larry was in cuffs and so was I. But what Larry was always able to do was he was always able to capture the video.... and he was always rolling at the right time. That situation he captured the video and when we went to trial and the judge saw the video and saw us not guilty."
Davis joins a list of legendary and longtime journalists at Fox 2 to retire over the last few years. Sandy Miller, Randi Naughton and Dan Gray have been among those to have recently retired from the station.
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