Elvira Davis was born in Tully, Northern Queensland, in 1935. She received her primary school education in Tully and Childers, thereafter attending high school in Herberton and graduating in Brisbane in 1953.
Elvira graduated as a teacher from Kelvin Grove Teachers College in 1954 and taught in Northern Queensland. She opened a one teacher school on Hayman Island in 1956. The following year she married Hal Davis and resigned from teaching.
After having three children, she resumed teaching in 1969 and also graduated with a Bachelor of Education degree from the University of Queensland in 1984. She eventually retired from teaching in 2000 and has continued writing seriously. She has always written poetry and has had several poems and articles published between 1969 and 2000.