Myra Loretta Davis

Myra Davis (nee Darrow) was born in Wheaton Illinois on March 16, 1939. A distant relative of the famous lawyer Clarence Darrow, she was a creative, confident, competent lady who made lifelong friends easily. And she was a fighter but lost her 11-year battle with metastatic breast cancer, passing away at home on Sunday, November 7, 2021. Her motto to the end was, “As long as I can do, I’m going to do.” During her early career, Myra traveled widely throughout the United States, Canada and Russia as a professional figure skater with Ice Capades. She worked for 20 years with them as a performer, instructor and business manager for Ice Capades Chalets. She met and married Colonel Richard Davis (USAF, ret.) in 1981 and shifted her focus toward jobs that kept her busy and engaged as the couple moved from assignment to assignment. After they returned to the Sacramento area and “Rick” retired in 1998, Myra became an executive consultant for corporate managers transferring to live in the Sacramento area and added a complementary California real estate sales certification, focusing on new homes. She also joined the Daughters of the American Revolution, supporting their multiple community service efforts. During their 40 years together, Myra and Rick lived in California, Alabama, the Washington DC area and overseas for nearly a decade in Guam, India and Africa. By the time Myra was no longer able to travel due to her disease (2019), Rick and Myra had seen 118 countries, living in 4 and visiting 114 others. Myra loved life, her children, dance, ice skating, classic movies, books, the theater, ideas, soap operas(!), political discourse, home remodeling, new places, new people and spending time with her many friends, especially the “Ladies of the Lake” in Elk Grove, her final home. She thrived on bunco, book club, water aerobics at the gym, and the ‘Buddha Group’ (her term) which studied a lot of Great Courses video programs. Her favorite things to do with Rick included (1) travel quests to find things like covered bridges in New England, lighthouses in the Outer Banks, best pasta and sauce in Italy, and best used bookstores in San Francisco; (2) reading books to each other, taking turns with the likes of Hemingway, Dashiel Hammett, Robert S. Parker, Shakespeare; and (3) always seeking what was at the end of the next new road. Myra is survived by her adoring husband, Rick; children Leslie DuFresne, Michael Davis and Diane Davis; grandson Nicolas Evangelista; and cat Phoebe. The family suggests memorials to Breast Cancer Research, UC Davis Medical Center; or to the American Cancer Society. Memorial services are pending.