Elvera 'Baby' Sanchez Davis
*Elvera "Baby" Sanchez Davis was born on September 1, 1905. She was an Afro Cuban American dancer. Elvera Sanchez was born in New York City to Afro Cuban immigrants Luisa Valentina and Marco Sánchez, a cigar maker.
She began her career as a chorus-line dancer at the Lafayette Theater in Harlem in 1921. She became known as 'Baby Sanchez' and married Sammy Davis Sr., also a dancer, in 1923. 1925, their son and only child, Sammy Davis Jr., was born. He would often accompany his mother and father to the theater. When Sammy Jr. was three, his parents split up, and his father obtained sole custody of him, taking him on the road.
Sanchez was a chorus-line dancer at Apollo Theater for six years and appeared in Oscar Micheaux’s 1938 film Swing. She continued to dance until the 1940s. After retiring from her show business career at 35, she began working as a barmaid for Grace's Little Belmont in Atlantic City, New Jersey. Her connections with entertainers Count Basie, Billy Eckstine, and Sarah Vaughan drew these and other celebrities to her station, and her son Sammy would come to visit after performing across town at the 500 Club.
From 1989 until her death on September 3, 2000, Sanchez was an adviser to the New York Committee to Celebrate National Tap Dance Day. She was Catholic and survived by a daughter, Ramona.
