Jacquelyn Lee Davis, age 96, died peacefully on November 25 at Newport House (SeniorCare Homes Alzheimer’s Neighborhood Living) in the loving care of her family, caregivers, and Kansas City Hospice. Jackie had been a resident at Newport House since April 2011. She was born in St. Louis, Missouri on September 2, 1924 to parents Albert and Margaretta Jester Henson. Jackie met her cherished husband Jack when he was a senior medical student at Washington University in St. Louis and Jackie was a newly graduated nurse at St. Louis City Hospital. Their first meeting was quite dramatic and happened when Jackie was working as a nurse taking care of psychiatric patients. One of her patients was missing from the unit and she was frantically hunting for him when she saw this young, curly-headed doctor talking to a man standing in a laundry hamper. The man was asking for the doctor’s autograph because he thought he was Babe Ruth. The young doctor played along while the patient calmed down and was eventually escorted back to his room. Jackie was quite impressed with the young doctor’s bedside manner and their relationship took off from there. They married the next year and moved to Raytown, Missouri where Jack subsequently began his practice in Internal Medicine at the Raytown Clinic. Over the next several years, they had three treasured children John, Melinda, and Steve. Jack was a very busy physician and Jackie ran the household. Since Jack had been raised on a farm, in 1970 they decided to buy a farm in Garden City, Missouri, and began raising registered Black Angus cattle. Jackie registered and named all of the cattle and called the heifers her “ladies.” Having a cattle ranch kept them quite busy well into retirement. They were a dynamic duo married for 63 years. Her beloved husband Jack died November 28, 2011.
Jackie had many talents and was an avid reader. We used to joke that she had read every book in the Raytown library. She was an excellent pianist and would play at family gatherings where everyone would gather around the piano to sing. She continued to play piano well into her last years at Newport House. She was an artist who could sketch and create various crafts. Jackie was an excellent seamstress, a skill she learned from her mother (her mother she said “could do anything”), making clothes and costumes for her children and grandchildren. Her great-granddaughters enjoy playing dress-up in those clothes today. She also liked embroidery, knitting, needlepoint, and quilting. She had a flair for interior design and maintained a beautiful home. She designed a gourmet kitchen for their home in 1963 before it was “in vogue.” She enjoyed gardening and taking care of her roses. She was a very good letter writer and corresponded regularly with friends and relatives, particularly all the nurses she had trained with all those years ago at St. Louis City Hospital. She was an excellent cook and many of her recipes are still treasured by her children and grandchildren. She was a pretty good handyman and learned to do some home repairs. She loved to travel with Jack to Key Biscayne and enjoyed reading a good book on the beach. She enjoyed cooking with her grandchildren, taking them to the family farm, creating costumes for the Renaissance Festival where they often competed, and famously staged a musical production for the family. Simply put, she liked to make the most of every day. She once made a quilt with the family motto “There is no fun like work.” Her husband had a larger than life personality, but when he retired she told him “I’m chief of staff around here.” Jackie was a member of Raytown Christian Church where she was a Stephen’s minister.
Education was very important to her. Jackie was very proud of completing her RN degree in St. Louis in 1947 after her father told her she would probably quit the first day at the first sight of blood. Jackie was elected President of her nursing class. Since she could not afford to go to college after high school, she attended the University of Kansas City (now UMKC) part-time while raising her family. She graduated in 1961 with a BA in Biology and earned the scholastic honorary Torch and Scroll. She was extremely proud of this. She also later obtained a Masters in English at UMKC in 1975 at the age of 51, graduating the same day her son John graduated from UMKC Medical School. She instilled this same emphasis on education into her children and grandchildren. Her daughter Melinda graduated from Harvard University and her son Stephen graduated from the University of Michigan Law School. Jackie and her husband established a family scholarship fund at the University of Missouri.
Most of all, she loved her husband Jack, her children, and indeed all her family with all her heart. She selflessly threw herself into whatever needed to be done to support her family. Jackie –Mom--Grandma—was an enormous influence in all of our lives and will be greatly missed. In her last months, she enjoyed her coffee with cream, anything chocolate, and looking at her books and family albums. She sometimes commented that she was ready to go home and see Jack and her mother.
Jackie was preceded in death by her sister Opal McCready in 2007. She is survived by her 3 children: John and wife Paula of Leawood, Kansas; Melinda Davis Wingate and husband Ealan of New York City, New York; and Stephen Davis and his wife Patti of Burr Ridge, Illinois. She was a loving grandmother of 6 grandchildren: John Davis III (Dawn) of Rochester, Minnesota; Stephanie Davis (Aaron Howell) of Mt. Pleasant, North Carolina; Allison Foy (Scott) of Leawood, Kansas; Colin Davis (Margaret Cashill) of Tampa, Florida; Spencer Davis of Burr Ridge, Illinois; and Amanda Gasser-Wingate (Marc) of Cambridge, Massachusetts. Jackie also leaves 4 beautiful great-granddaughters Anne and Ella Davis of Rochester, Minnesota and Phoebe and Darcy Davis of Tampa, Florida. She also leaves behind nieces Jo Ann McCready of Mesa, Arizona, Beverly Albertson Person (Dennis) of Kansas City, Missouri, and Denise Stottlemyer of Chillicothe, Missouri.
Jackie’s family wants to thank Jerry Pullins Jr. and all the wonderful caregivers at Newport House (most recently Rachel, Lakin and Etag) who have given loving care to Jackie these past nine years. We also wish to thank Kansas City Hospice for their excellent care of Jackie and for support to our family which made a tremendous difference especially during this pandemic. We encourage donations to either of these organizations in loving memory of Jackie. Jackie will be laid to rest at Newcomer’s Floral Hills Cemetery.
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