Obituaries: Obituary: Lydia Sturtevant Riley Davis
June 25, 2008
Lydia Sturtevant Riley Davis died on June 20, 2008, in Cornwall, N.Y. She was born on January 6, 1912, in Brunswick, Me.
Knicknamed "Diddy," was the youngest of three sisters and a vivacious and fun-loving beauty. Her father, Thomas Harrison Riley, Jr., a prominent banker in this Bowdoin College town, enlisted Lydia's assistance in his hobby of "scooping" newsworthy fires and the like, a talent she later put to advantage as the "Here and There" columnist (for decades) at the Cornwall Local. Lydia's mother, Orra Davis Mitchell, was an avid gardener and homemaker.
Lydia graduated from Brunswick High School in 1930 while dating Harrison Merrill Davis, Jr., a brilliant history student at Bowdoin and Harvard. The couple married in 1934 following Lydia’s graduation from Bradford Junior College and Connecticut College for Women.
Lydia began her career as headmaster's wife at many fine independent schools, including several years at Evans School in Tucson, AZ., where she assisted in English and horseback riding. The Davis’ entertained Thornton Wilder the same weekend he received the Pulitzer Prize for writing "Our Town".
Mrs. Davis supported her husband's efforts as headmaster at Derby academy in Hingham, MA. where she also drove a school bus, supported the war effort, and ran a nursery/kindergarten. The Davis' then moved on to Nasson College for Women in southern Maine where Harrison undertook the presidency.
During this time Lydia assisted her husband with the Easter Seals campaign and directing Pine Tree camp, which still serves orthopaedically impaired children to this day. During the great Maine fire of 1947, Lydia fed hundreds of volunteers and displaced persons, and bravely helped her sister, Elizabeth Whitman, of the American Red Cross, in driving people out of the danger areas.
The Davis family, consisting of Harrison Merrill Davis, III (Jerry), Margaret Ellen Paul-Cavallier (Peggy) and Lydia Adams Davis (Lolly) moved to the Hudson Valley to undertake the headmastership of Hackley School in Tarrytown, N.Y., and the Storm King School in Cornwall on Hudson. Lydia Davis ran the Drama Dept. at New York Military Academy where she wrote the smash hit "Yea, Furlough" while her husband served as director of admissions from 1953 until his retirement in 1971.
Lydia co-founded the Cornwall Bridge Club and worked in real estate with Stone's Agency for many years. She is warmly remembered for her special talent for matching families with homes in the Cornwall area and bringing like-minded people together in gatherings at her home on Angola Road. In her retirement years she joined a literary society known as Ingleside, but had to withdraw to care for her husband's failing health.
From 1981 until May of 2007, Lydia lived at 28 Washington Street in Cornwall-on-Hudson, joyfully receiving the visits of her grandchildren. She was the oldest long-time member of the Cornwall Presbyterian Church.
Lydia is survived by her three children: Harrison Merrill Davis III, of Brooklyn, N.Y., Margaret Ellen Paul-Cavallier, of St. Cloud, France, and Lydia Adams Davis of Cornwall-on-Hudson, N.Y.; by her grandchildren: Stuart Burton Davis, Virginie Merrill Monnier, Romeyn Adams Nesbitt, Jeffrey Wagner Browy, Jonathan Adams Browy, Alexandra Dressel Michael and by her eight great-grandchildren residing in Paris, France and Florida.
Donations may be given to "Meals On Wheels" Orange County Senior Dining Program, 18 Seward Avenue, Middletown, NY 10940.
A Service for Lydia S. Davis will be held at 12 noon at the Cornwall Presbyterian Church, 222 Hudson St., C-O-H, on Sunday July 6th, preceded by a brunch in her honor at 10:30 am. All are invited to join the family and friends in fellowship prior to the service.
Funeral arrangements are under the direction of Quigley Bros. Funeral Home.
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