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ELVERA SANCHEZ DAVIS, DANCER, SAMMY’S MOM

Elvera Sanchez Davis, 95, a tap dancer and the mother of Sammy Davis Jr., died Sept. 2 at her home in Manhattan.

Ms. Davis, known as Baby Sanchez, began performing at 16 in the chorus line at the Harlem Lafayette Theater and continued her career into the early 1940s, dancing for six years in the Apollo chorus line.

In 1923, performing in a touring show called “Holiday in Dixie,” Ms. Davis met and married Sammy Davis Sr., also a dancer in the show. Their son, born in 1925, often traveled with his touring parents. “I don’t mind him watching from the wings, but I don’t want him stealing all my steps,” John Bubbles said of Sammy, then 2, to Ms. Davis.

The boy became a tap-dance prodigy by age 10, trained and brought up by his father after his parents separated. But he was “Baby Sanchez’s son,” said the dance historian Delilah Jackson.

Ms. Davis decided to retire when the Apollo disbanded its dance chorus, though she danced informally into her 90s. She also performed in touring revues and in films including Carl Micheaux’s 1936 “Swing.”

After retiring from the stage, she worked as a waitress and became a house celebrity at Gracie’s Little Belmonte, a popular bar on Kentucky Avenue in Atlantic City.

She continued to be involved with New York tap dance until her death, serving from 1989 as an adviser to the New York Committee to Celebrate National Tap Dance Day.