Cedar Rapids man who drowned at Lake Macbride was just starting to come out of his shell

CEDAR RAPIDS — Willie Davis Jr. was diagnosed with Crohn’s disease as a child, and he’d grown up struggling to balance hospital visits and treatment with school and hobbies. He had his ups and downs, but he’d been on an upswing lately.

His aunt, Evangeline Clewis, helped his mom buy a car, making it easier to get him to and from doctor’s appointments in Iowa City without relying on others. The readily available transportation also helped the 23-year-old Cedar Rapids man become more consistent with his appointments and medicine, and gave him freedom to leave home.

He recently got a job as a package handler at FedEx, where he met and started dating Suad Alyasiri, 28. Alyasiri loved the outdoors, according to her mother, and she was helping Davis start to come out of his shell, Clewis said.

Then on July 21, Alyasiri and Davis rented a canoe to go out on Lake Macbride near Solon. But the canoe tipped, and they both drowned. Neither was wearing a life jacket.

“He was my treasure,” Clewis said. “He was our light, and our light’s gone out. It’s a lot different without him here.”

Clewis, who lives in Tennessee, said when her sister called to let her know Davis had died, she became distraught. “I’m crying, and she’s crying, and it got so overwhelming for me, I thought I was going to lose my mind,” Clewis said. “I just started praying. I had to start praying because I don’t know what would have happened.”

Clewis is Davis’s aunt, but because she’s older than her sister — Davis’ mom — and Davis’ grandmother died before he was born, she always considered him to be her oldest grandchild — and he always called her Meemaw.

She lives in Tennessee, but she would visit regularly while Davis was growing up in Cedar Rapids, and she was very close with him, she said.

“I would come to town, and when he was younger, I couldn’t leave unless he was asleep, because he would just cry and cry,” Clewis said. “I would always leave town after he went to sleep, so I’d be leaving really early in the morning or late at night. And he was fighting to sleep because he knew I was leaving and he didn’t want me to leave.”

He was also close with his mother, Kimberly Lee, who Clewis said was his best friend. He often worried about stressing her out, especially when she had to ask people for rides to Iowa City for his doctor appointments.

He often spent time sick at home, and when he did go out, he didn’t usually go far. He liked to be on his computer, and he would work with friends to make digital music. “His favorite thing to do was get on the computer and do beats,” Clewis said.

But this year, with better transportation for hospital visits, a new job and a new girlfriend, Clewis said Davis was really starting to figure out who he was.

“He was just overall a really good person. We never had problems with him. He never brought any disgrace. He was not in any kind of trouble, or gangs. He just didn’t do anything, pretty much. He was at home until he had his job,” Clewis said.

Davis recently had passed his first 90 days at his new job, but he hadn’t yet completed the paperwork necessary to get benefits, like life insurance, before he died. A GoFundMe page was started this week to help the family pay for funeral costs.

Alyasiri’s family also started a GoFundMe page to pay for her funeral. Alyasiri was born in Saudi Arabia, but raised in Cedar Rapids. She worked as a hairstylist as well as working at FedEx, where she met Davis.

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Alyasiri’s mother, Inaam Smital, told The Gazette she believes her daughter may have tried to help Davis after the canoe tipped.

“She’s a good swimmer, but I can’t imagine she would give up on anybody. I’m very sure she gave up her life for him. She probably refused to swim away. She could have saved herself by swimming away, but I know her. She would never do that.” Smital said.

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