Megan Jones Davidson

Megan King Jones Davidson, proud Welsh woman, mother, grandmother, great-grandmother, theater impresario, world traveler, and ambassador of Welsh culture and the Arts, passed in her home on November 9, 2011 after an extended illness, surrounded by her family.

Born in Mynddygarreg, South Wales into a Welsh-speaking family, she studied nursing at Hammersmith Hospital, London, and nursed the wounded during the Blitz of WWII. In June 1945 in Kidwelly, Wales, she married American Lieutenant Hugh Davidson, and emigrated to Wisconsin.

Adjusting to new American surroundings was made easier when her mother-in-law Vera sought out other Welsh people nearby. Megan never forgot this kindness and would repay it over a lifetime of building bridges in the Welsh-American community.

Megan continued nursing while helping her husband complete medical school and raising the first of their six children. The growing family moved to Riverdale, North Dakota, then Kansas City, Missouri, and then to The Dalles, Oregon.

In her youth, Megan dreamed of studying at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts. In The Dalles she founded the first of many theater groups, The Masqueraders, producing such exuberant musicals as Oklahoma!, Brigadoon, and South Pacific. Many still remember her infectious determination and were not surprised when she saw an old round barn in disrepair and rallied the community to transform it into a theater in the round.

A faithful Episcopalian, Megan also served as President of the Episcopal Church Women of Eastern Oregon. She championed fundraising efforts to build a new St. Paul’s Church for the growing congregation.

In 1968, the family moved to Northern California. Megan quickly made new friends and continued producing and directing theater, founding the Star Players, British American Actors Theater, and Los Gatos Theater Project. Audiences enjoyed her productions at venues including Villa Montalvo, the Triton Museum, the Mayer Theater, Palo Alto Barn, Saratoga Community Theater, and Old Town Theater in Los Gatos, among others. She also served on Los Gatos Friends of the Arts and the Los Gatos Arts Commission.

During the 1970s and 80s, as host mother to dozens of international students, she established friendships throughout the world, the most enduring of which is with the Mitani family of Tokyo. She would go on to visit these dear friends often in her later years.

Throughout her lifetime of service to family and dedication to the arts, Megan still found time to travel with lucky children and grandchildren on trips as far away as Kuala Lumpur, Luxor, and Santorini. For them, and for many others, she introduced a world of beauty, possibility, and adventure.

Megan was widely commended for her enthusiastic promotion of Welsh language and culture: organizing Gymanfa Ganu, Eisteddfods, teaching Welsh language classes, sponsoring visiting choirs and playwrights, and overseeing as President, and later Cultural Director, events for the Welsh American Club (now the Welsh American Society of Northern California, www.WASNC.com). This labor of love culminated in Megan’s initiation as “Gwendraeth Fach,” donning the green robes of an ovate of the Gorsedd (Welsh Druidic tradition) at the 1996 National Eisteddfod in Llandeilo, Wales.

She is survived by Hugh Davidson, six children, eight grandchildren, two great-grandchildren, her sister Rachel and brother Evan. A celebration of her life is planned. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to Hospice of the Valley in San Jose, whose dedicated and compassionate care eased her final months of life.