Marguerite “Margie” Davis of California MD, formally of Dedham/Jamaica Plain MA, passed away Wednesday, July 6, 2022, at the age of 86. Born March 1936 as the youngest of ten to Irish immigrants Jack (a gardener to a couple of wealthy families “on the hill”) and Mary Kelly (a laundress when ankle length dresses were in style), raised in the Catholic faith, Margie and her nine siblings helped found the small neighborhood of Jamaica Plain, being one of the first families in that area. (Jamaica Plain has since flourished into a not so small area; but the homestead is still in a Kelly’s hand; making it a Kelly landmark of close to 100 years!)
After graduating high school and venturing out into the world, she met by chance through a girlfriend, a smooth-talking Italian Navy man from Washington DC; Francis “Frankie” Davis. After a whirlwind year courtship, they married in an Irish/Italian wedding in the Kelly family church in 1962, where they were married for 44 years until his passing in December of 2006. Immediately following the wedding, they whisked away into military life, relocating six times during their career to settle here, in St. Mary’s County MD in 1978. Amazingly, during all that travel here and there, Margie found time to have three children, John, Kellie, and Kathleen. (Notice the Irish names? Story has it we looked like our Italian dad at birth, so mom made sure we had something highlighted from her side of the family.)
A homemaker and a wonderful mother, with abundant shenanigans, smiles, laughter, and lot of Catholic prayers throughout the years, Margie maintained a loving household for 59 years. Attending many of children sporting events and school plays, hustling to ballet classes only to find out your kid has two left feet and just can’t dance, and swatting a few backsides along the way (a few of those backside were the St. Andrew Estate neighborhood kids that were just up to no good – Ahh, got to love growing up on the 80’s), Margie maintain her sanity by crocheting afghans, sweaters, mittens, hats and scarfs. I don’t think there was a niece or nephew who didn’t have a “Margie Original”.
Survived by her children John, Kellie and Kathleen and loving granddaughter Emma; she is also survived by two siblings Theresa McKenney and Francis Kelly of Massachusetts. (That’s not counting all the nieces, nephews, and grand nieces and nephews nine sibling can create over the years.) In summary, a few of Margie’s favorite sayings that have shaped the Davis children over the years: “No means no – do not ask again; Do you want me to get your father; Even if I tell you no you’re going to do it anyway; See, God punished you because you didn’t listen to your mother; Don’t even ask because you are not missing Church no matter how late you stay out” and our favorite “Don’t Let Your Wants Hurt You”, as she walk away while you’re throwing a childish tantrum because we wanted something beyond our means. In the illustrious words of Margie, “make sure you go to the bathroom before mass because once your backside is in the pew your there to the end; there’s no getting up.”
If interested, you are welcome to come by and pay your respects to Margie. A Mass of Christian Burial will be held at 10:00 AM in St. John’s Catholic Church Hollywood, MD with Father Ray Schmidt officiating. Interment will follow in the church cemetery
