Jane Davison

A Baton Rouge resident, she had a heart attack and passed away at Our Lady of the Lake Regional Medical Center on Tuesday, Sept. 1, 2009, surrounded by her loving family. She was born in Bogalusa on July 25, 1945. The following was written by our dear friends Raymond and Sandy Strother. Jane Davison, my friend. The best analogy of Jane's life was a small sewing room where the bulging walls and shelves seemed to swirl with clutter around a high- tech sewing machine that occupied the only cleared space. Within arm's reach were bits and pieces of small, beautiful things intended to be assembled as gifts for others. She was an artist but her creativity was usually assigned to tomorrow. Jane spent all of her time worrying about her husband, her family, her friends, birds outside, her dog, cat and other people. Until her last days, she stumbled through the tasks of a normal person, but her life was anything but normal. Jane was in the process of setting a record for the survival of a kidney transplant. Rather than be concerned with the time that was left on this used part, she joked with the doctors about searching for a replacement. When diabetes-induced neuropathy no longer let her feel the earth beneath her feet and she was assigned to a walker, one heard only jokes and not complaints. It was as though Jane had a temporary muscle pull or bruise that would soon heal. Yet, if a friend was ill, she would drag her deteriorating body to a bedside or hospital. The Internet gave her a megaphone to disperse jokes, concern and good cheer but there was never a digit assigned to a personal woe. When she followed her husband to Washington where he was for years a creative director, she feathered a suburban nest for her commuting husband and didn't complain but was always looking South toward her friends, the gumbo dinners, LSU football and warmer weather that didn't seep into her swollen joints. Washington can be a cruel place. However she made a host of new friends. But when people didn't understand her passion for Louisiana, her accent, or her politics, she simply made self-deprecating jokes and endured. She refused to recognize unkindness or cruelty. Her return to Baton Rouge was the completion of a circle that allowed her to finish her journey where she began. Preceded in death by her father, Alexander Martin Richey; and mother, Milda Poche Richey. Survived by her loving husband of 30 years, Stephen C. Davison; brother, Donald Martin Richey and wife Nina Bringol Richey; stepson, Andrew Davison and wife Denise O'Neal Davison; stepdaughter, Kathleen Davison Sonnier and husband Brent Sonnier; grandchildren, Chloe Marie Sonnier, Sydni O'Neal and Trevor O'Neal; niece, Monique Richey Pedersen, husband, Toby Pedersen and great-niece, Lindsey Savoy, all of Morrilton, Ark.; and a myriad of extended family and friends. The family requests that visitation be observed at Rabenhorst Funeral Home, 825 Government St. on Friday, Sept. 4, from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. Viewing at Our Lady of Mercy Catholic Church on Saturday, Sept 5, from 9 a.m. until service at 10 a.m. Interment in Roselawn Cemetery, North Street, Baton Rouge. In lieu of flowers, make donations to the AmericanDiabetesAssociation.