Ann M. Davis

Ann M. Davis, of Alexandria, VA, passed away on Friday April, 1, 2011. As a school teacher, Mrs. Davis taught at St. Rita’s Catholic School in Alexandria, Beverley Hills Coop in Alexandria, the Alexandria Country Day School and most recently at Riverside Elementary in Fairfax County. Beloved wife of Steve Davis; devoted mother of Tom Davis and Kevin (Mandy) Davis; loving daughter of John and Bridgetta Fagan, of Hazelton, PA; and sister of Mike (Deanne) Fagan, of Waterford, VA. She is also survived by three nieces, Kelsey, Lindsey and Cameron Fagan. Funeral services will be held on Friday April 8, at Queen of Apostle Catholic Church, 4329 Sano St., Alexandria, VA at 11:00 am. Inurnment will follow at the Davis Family Cemetery in Fountainhead Park, Fairfax Station, VA. In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made in Ann’s name to the Lost Cat and Dog Rescue Foundation (LCDRF) P.O. Box 50037, Arlington, VA 22205.Arrangements under the direction of Demaine Funeral Home, Springfield, VA.

Ann Moira Davis

When writing a tribute dedicated to the positive impact Ann had on every person she ever met, 10,000 words does not even scratch the surface. That is the max we can include in this story. We will do our best to honor the memory of a beautiful wife, mother, teacher, friend, sister, aunt, soon to be grandmother and person.

A number of our friends and relatives have written stories about Ann's life and their experiences with her. They go into her early days, when she met my dad, her teaching career and how she touched so many lives.

The first account comes from Kathleen and Mike Harmon, my dad’s sister and brother in law:

Ann Davis was the “Complete Package,” beauty and brains! A rare combination and truly a gift from God.

When Ann was ten years old her parents asked her what was the one thing she had always wanted. She thought a moment, and then replied brightly, “A puppy!” They explained to her that she could expect a baby brother or sister, but not a puppy. Ann was

ecstatic, she would have her first real student to read stories to. Michael, she adored you

from the moment you were born. Ann was so proud of the young man you have become and the family you and Deann are raising. Your girls, Kelsey, Lindsay and Cameron were a treasure to her.

I first met Ann in 1976 when she was dating my younger brother, Steve. I was amazed that a person so young could know without a doubt what she wanted to do with her life. I am now sixty and still completely clueless what to do when I grow up! Ann told me she always knew that teaching would be her life. She used to line up her dolls and have school for them. Ann’s role was always as the classroom teacher.

Steve often took Ann on Friday night to a restaurant a few blocks from where I lived in West Springfield. This is a Davis tradition; find a good restaurant, especially if it advertises ALL YOU CAN EAT! After noticing that this restaurant also featured children under six eat free, they started including my son, Jerry who was four to join them. Jerry felt very special going out on a dates with Uncle Steve and Ann. I am not sure who was more in love with Ann at that time, my brother or my four year old son!

Steve and Ann were married in August 1977. Ann was a beautiful bride, stunning with that long, red hair. Steve, after seeing you two together for 33 years I am convinced you and Ann were more than lovers and best friends, but soul mates as well. You had a marriage and closeness that others envy and search for all their lives. How lucky you were to have found each other. You were blessed.

Steve got Ann the puppy she had always wanted, so Ace made a family of three. A few years later I received an excited phone call from my Dad. He said he and Mom had just come home from the hospital after the baby arrived. He said, “It’s a boy and guess what? He has red hair! His name is Thomas!” Sixteen months later I received an identical phone call from Dad. He said “Mom and I just got home from the hospital and it is another boy. He has red hair and his name is Kevin!” Ann was an incredible mother and loved her men! Thomas and Kevin you were her reason for living, you two were the light of her life.

The next years can best be described as the baseball years. I don’t want to say Ann and Steve were fanatics about the boy’s sports, but they vacationed in Cooperstown at the Hall of Fame. They were the only family I ever knew who had a full size batting cage in their back yard!

Ann returned to teaching during those years. To Ann, teaching was never simply a profession, it was her passion. She loved being with children, and seeing them succeed.

Ann taught at St. Rita’s, Alexandria Country Day and Riverside Elementary. One of the worst days of her life was when her doctor told her because her immune system was compromised by the chemotherapy she would never be able to return to teaching. It broke her heart, but not her spirit and she remained optimistic about her future.

Ann was thrilled to see Kevin and Mandy married. She described being there as a miracle. It was a happy weekend for the Davis family to be together for a wonderful celebration

This past year has been the most difficult, but through it all Ann still hoped for more time. Until the end of her days Ann was still a teacher. Not in the classroom with her little ones, but teaching all of us. Teaching us not to be afraid of frightening words like chemotherapy, mastectomy, radiation and cancer. She showed us all how to live a life with humor, dignity and grace. She showed us all the true meaning of courage.

-Aunt Kathy

We asked two of my mom’s friends, Karen O’Rourke and Charlie Dwyer, to touch on their experiences. Karen and Charlie both taught with Ann for the better part of their teaching careers, and have become great friends to our family:

Ann always wanted to be a teacher, and especially to work with young children. How lucky for the many hundreds whose lives she would touch and enrich over the years that she pursued her passion.

After completing her undergraduate work at James Madison University and her M.Ed. at George Mason, Ann began teaching at a local preschool, and a few years later found her niche as a kindergarten teacher. In a career that spanned 30 years at both public and private schools, Ann garnered the respect, admiration, and even awe of administrators, colleagues and parents for the way in which she connected with children. She was a model for her colleagues, and a natural mentor for new teachers. Ann won accolades for her many gifts as an educator, and awards celebrating her leadership, innovation, creativity, resourcefulness, and collaborative spirit. The most meaningful tributes, though, came from her students:

“I loved everything you did because it seemed magical.”

“When you were around I was exploding with happiness.”

“The light you clicked on in my mind shines all the time.”

So many things endeared Ann to her students: the way she smiled at them when they walked in the room each morning; the way she listened and focused so attentively when they spoke to her; the way she read stories aloud, doing all the voices, and holding the book up high so that everyone could see the pictures; the way she joined in board games during free time instead of sitting at her desk, and sat at the small table with them at lunch, eating her peanut butter and jelly sandwich and telling funny stories about her boys and her husband; the way she let the class vote on things – what to study next, whether to have a class pet, what game to play at recess; the way she helped them figure things out for themselves, like what to write next in their story, or how to make up with a friend; the way she acted silly sometimes, and then laughed at herself. She laughed a lot.

Ann was warm and genuine in her affection for her students, and she made each child in her care feel valued and celebrated, just as she did her friends. They returned that affection, and it endured long after they left her classroom. Years later they still invited her to their baseball games, ballet recitals, birthdays, graduations, even weddings. She almost always found time to go. She displayed their photos, handmade cards, notes and drawings on the front of her refrigerator, next to those of her own boys, and she proudly featured the treasures bestowed at the end of each school year throughout her house. Every hand-painted stool, flowerpot, and coffee mug had a place in her home, to serve as a reminder.

One of Ann’s students once wrote to her “You have done great in life.” So true, Mrs. Davis. How you’ll be missed.

-Karen and Charlie

The next account comes from my dad, Steve Davis. We asked him to speak briefly about the time before my brother and I came along:

Kevin, I'll give it a shot. She went to grade school at Blessed Sacrament in Alexandria then Saint Mary’s Catholic high school. This was later the location of Alexandria Country Day School. I met her in Jan. of her freshman year at a big party in Logan dorm, Madison College. Katy claims she was quite smitten. Your mother graduated in 1977. I did not. We were married Aug.13, 1977. We lived in an apartment in Park Shirlington for one year. We then moved to the house on Dinwiddie St. We were very happy until the Irish twins come along and all hell broke loose. She stayed home with you guys till you started preschool and then started working there.

-Steve Davis

“….all hell broke loose.” Thanks Dad. To my recollection, my brother and I were saints.

Some of my fondest memories of childhood come from the summers that Tom and I shared with our mother. She always had something planned for us, some activity to keep us busy…not that Tom and I would ever stick to it. But she was always there to put on a Band-Aid, or break up a “spirited argument”, of which there were a few.

Very few people are lucky enough to grow up in the type of environment that Ann and Steve Davis provided for both their sons. I am pretty confident in grade school, Ann and Steve never once missed a sporting event, and there were only a handful of teams we played on that Steve was not the coach, or part of the staff.

A few things I hope to take through life from the examples provided by Ann and Steve:

1. Don’t sweat the small stuff. In almost two decades with Cancer, I never once heard Ann complain. She said there was always someone who had it worse.

2. Tell your loved ones how they make you feel as often as possible. You never know when the window of opportunity to do so will close.

3. The greatest joy comes from giving, not receiving.

4. Be a person who cares more about how others are doing and what is going on in their life, instead of just waiting for your turn to talk.

5. Completely, selflessly and wholly devote yourself to your partner and to your family. That would be my definition of both Ann and Steve’s relationship and family life.

The next tribute comes from Jerry Harmon, Ann’s nephew:

I was the ring bearer at Ann's wedding to my Mother's little brother, my Uncle Steve. I was probably four at the time. It's one of the earliest memories that I see like a movie in in my head rather than a slide show of still pictures. I remember walking down the aisle, turning at the last minute to sit with my parents because no one wanted a 4 year old to stand through the full wedding. I remember climbing around under a long table, draped in white and coming out the other side where Ann was waiting with a bag of peanut M&Ms. I think of that every time I see that yellow bag in a vending machine or check-out line. I remember dancing with Ann and thinking that Weddings were possibly the coolest thing in the world. When I think about that day though, almost every one of the vignettes that play in my head involve Ann. It wasn't the wedding that made the impact on me, it was her. She made sure that her cranky little nephew had fun, was entertained, and had snacks. She didn't have to do any of that, but that's who she was.

Ann and Steve would take me out for pizza, or to the movies. I remarked recently to a friend that I was their 'practice kid' before they had their own. After Thomas and Kevin were borne, they would involve me, telling me they 'needed help watching the kids at the circus' which really just meant they had 3 boys to keep an eye on, but Ann made sure I felt needed and important and I've always loved her for that.

Ann trusted me to babysit her own children, but that made sense, I was available, reasonably reliable and cheap. Ann gave me my very first job as a teacher's assistant at a pre-school summer camp she was running. The job consisted mainly of being a human jungle gym, but Ann new it would make a good resume stuffer since I wanted to be a teacher when I grew up. I loved the job and did it two summers in a row before college.

When I was in High School and College I would talk with Ann when I saw her, and I didn't realize at the time - she was one of those rare people that are more interested in how you're doing, about what's going on in your life than prattling on about their own life. I find this to be a more and more rare commodity in people. Ann had this in spades. From my earliest memories to the last time I saw her, she always made me feel like I was important, like what I was doing, or what I had to say mattered more than anything else.

Everyone who came in contact with her couldn't help but like her, and I'd bet most came away loving her. She was warm, and loving, and compassionate. Over the past 10 years as she battled relentless cancer, she displayed amazing courage, determination, bravery and grace. Through it all she maintained a sense of hope that we couldn't help but take as our own. I love her, and I will miss her. We are all a little less without her.

Mom, when you read this I hope you will look down and smile and know how many lives you touched. There are countless people who are better because they had you in their lives. I cannot put into words how much I miss you. I know I will never be the person who you were, and that is okay. However, it is my goal in life to be ½ the spouse, parent, friend, sibling, Catholic, relative, coworker, and person you were and will continue to be in our hearts and memories.

I love you more.

Kevin