Margaret "Magi" Davis

Margaret E. Davis, 90, died Friday morning June 18, 2021 at her residence in Austin, Texas shortly following a severe health incident. A graveside service will be held at 10:00 AM Tuesday June 22 in Austin Memorial Park, 2800 Hancock Dr, Austin, TX 78731.

Margaret was born July 10th, 1930 to William and Bessie Trawick and grew up in the Crichton neighborhood of Mobile, Alabama. She was the third of three sisters and also had both an older and younger brother. She left school at a young age to begin working at factories in Mobile while still living at home. It was while she was at this stage of her early working life that in 1949 she and a friend were set up on a date with two servicemen stationed at the Brookley Field Air Force Base near Mobile. She and her friend decided to switch the initial pairings and she began dating her future husband, Douglas R. Davis from Austin, Texas. After dating for a few months, and on a dare from one of Doug’s Air Force buddies, Margaret and Doug took a Greyhound Bus from Mobile and eloped to Lucedale, Mississippi where they were both legally able to be married. That began a marriage which lasted over seventy years and only ended when Doug passed away in 2019. It also took Margaret away from Mobile and started her on the journey of being the wife of an Air Force Serviceman and later Air Force Officer.

Because her husband’s career path entailed frequent relocations, Margaret went from being a young woman who had essentially been born and grown up in a relatively small area to being a world traveller. In fact, in 1951 shortly after the birth of her first son, Dwight, she found herself on a ship travelling to join her husband on assignment in England. Over the years she also lived overseas for assignments in Japan and the Philippines as well as different locations in the United States, sometimes raising Dwight and his two younger brothers, Michael and Jeffrey, alone when Doug was assigned to locations like Vietnam and Korea where family was not allowed to join. In her role as a serviceman’s wife she participated in many activities with other servicemen’s wives, and it was in one of these activities as a member of a bowling team (a sport at which she was very accomplished) she acquired the name by which she was known thereafter by almost everyone. The names of her teammates all ended in the letter “i” so even though Margaret was called “Maggie”, the scorekeeper wrote it “Magi” and she wrote her name Magi Davis for the rest of her life.

Especially once Doug became an officer in the Air Force, Magi attacked the role of officer’s wife with gusto, volunteering for posts in various Air Force Wive’s associations and supporting Doug in his various social obligations. Up until his retirement from the Air Force in 1974, Magi was an integral part of his advancement up the Air Force career path.

Although Magi had dropped out of school at an early age, she had a good natural intelligence and was a hard worker. In 1970 she obtained her GED and began her own working career. When Doug retired from the Air Force, they were living in Massachusetts and while working as an analyst and supervisor at the Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Company she steadily advanced and won many awards. When she and Doug decided to move back to Austin, Texas to assist Doug’s elderly parents as well as be closer to other family, she decided that instead of returning to an office job she would pursue another one of her passions. Magi had always had an artistic talent and the physical skills to turn that talent into beautiful objects. On returning to Austin, she and Doug formed a small company named Diamond D. They produced ceramic decorations and decorative art which was distinguished by Magi’s fine and detailed painting. They traveled to arts and craft shows around the region selling their products and built up a steady clientele. Unfortunately, in 2004 Magi suffered a stroke while visiting her family in Alabama. While she was able to recover from the worst effects of the stroke, she was not able to recapture the skills that were responsible for Diamond D’s success. Luckily her two sons, her grandsons and later her great grandchildren all lived in Austin and she transitioned all of her energy into family related activities over the last 17 years. In 2019, Magi and Doug moved into an assisted living facility in Austin where she met new friends and participated in many different activities, all while staying physically close to much of her family.

Magi was preceded in death by her husband Doug in 2019 but is survived by sons Dwight (wife Ara) and Jeff (spouse Joey), of Austin (another son Michael died in 1972); grandsons through Dwight and Ara, Michael (wife Brandy) of Cedar Park, Texas and Patrick of Austin; and great-grandchildren through Michael and Brandy, Scarlett and Wesley. She is also survived by her niece Sheila Jones of Ellisville, Mississippi and her family as well as other relations of her extended Trawick family.