At 101 years of age, Marjorie Davis can look back over a rich, interesting life. She’s made it count. She had already lived a full life and raised two children before moving to Kenwood to begin a new chapter of her life. That chapter has been just as full as her earlier life and this outspoken, caring neighbor has created a legacy that won’t soon be forgotten.
When approached for this article, Davis with good humor said that her hearing and even her voice were not what they once were. We corresponded by letters instead of phone calls and she also shared with us things that she has written, describing her life. One of those she called, “Thinking Back,” and she wrote it when her granddaughter asked her about her life.
Davis was born in Illinois on Nov. 8, 1920. She had a bit of a shaky beginning because her parents’ marriage was disintegrating when she was born. She spent many of her early years with her grandmother who always did what she thought was best for her granddaughter’s well-being. Davis enjoyed traveling with her and tending to a small but sweet garden that they kept together. Her grandmother rented a room for her in a boarding house so that she would be closer to her high school.
Davis married young and had two children. When she was pregnant with her daughter she decided she didn’t want her children to grow up in Pittsburg, Pennsylvania where they were living and so they bought a small country cottage that sat near a creek in Glenshaw, Pennsylvania.
She describes hardships that she had to overcome when her husband was away serving in the army during WWII. Flooding in the creek washed out a bridge that led to her home so neighbors cut down a tree to serve as a makeshift bridge until her husband returned. She described crossing the bridge with two small children and groceries, carefully taking one child across at a time.
Later, winter ice-filled floodwaters battered her home one night while her husband was away working a night shift. She described a neighbor helping her get her children out, each holding a child and scrambling up a steep snow-covered hill to safety.
Even with those hardships she described how much she appreciated her children getting to grow up in the country setting. They had fun playing in the creek which was simply a rambling stream in the summer, climbing trees, gathering blackberries and enjoying nature. They had dogs, cats and even ducks.
Davis said she loved her home, but in 1952 when the opportunity came to move to a warmer climate she jumped at the chance. Her son Joey was 11 and her daughter Janet was seven and they decided to make it a journey to remember.
She said they took advantage of the opportunity to stop and check out many of the country's beautiful parks along the way. In “Thinking Back” she described part of the journey: “We traveled south at a leisurely pace knowing we would never drive those roads again,” she wrote. “We visited each tourist site along the way. Crossing the Great Smoky Mountains we drove through clouds at the highest elevations. We cooked on our butane stove, ate at picnic tables and camped overnight in parks.”
When they finally made it to California, Davis fell in love. “Palm trees, orange trees, water and lush greenery greeted us everywhere,” she wrote. “I was 32 and California was the state in which I would grow old.”
Davis raised her children in South San Gabriel. They traveled a lot, visiting fun tourist destinations in Southern California and into Mexico. In the summers they traveled to National Parks in the Western United States. Davis and her children fell in love with traveling and she said she’s traveled to most of the places she wanted to. Besides the United States, her two favorite places to travel have been Italy and Mexico.
She and her husband had gotten divorced and she married Rudy Davis in 1961. In 1973, she and Rudy decided to move north. They spent time traveling and checking out areas so that they might find the perfect place to resettle. They fell in love with Kenwood and decided to settle there.
Davis said she wouldn’t change anything about Kenwood and their home there. She said she enjoys the remoteness, quiet and privacy and said they’ve been fortunate to find such a perfect place to live. She settled into her new life in her Kenwood home.
Then one day her dog found a baby squirrel and carefully brought it in and laid it on the floor. Davis was moved to help this little creature survive. She called for help. When a wildlife rescue person came to pick it up, Davis became interested in the work. She began volunteering and then decided that she saw a great need among the black-tailed deer population. She began helping with rescuing and helping to rehabilitate young black-tailed fawns.
She said nobody else wanted to do the work. “They were too big, too delicate and too expensive,” she wrote. “That’s why I stepped in to specialize with fawns. Perfect for me.”
In 1989 she founded Fawn Rescue of Sonoma County. It’s a nonprofit organization licensed to care for ill, injured or orphaned black-tailed fawns. While doing this work she helped create a fawn nursing formula for use during rehabilitation. She authored a wildlife manual called “Black-tailed Fawns - Care in Captivity,” and a collection of rescue and rehabilitation stories called “Leap to Freedom.” She wrote the Fawn Protocol which was adopted by the state Department of Fish and Wildlife. She also helped find the cure for deerpox virus and hair loss syndrome.
Davis stresses that it’s important to remember that these are wild animals and that must always be in the forefront when working with them. They must not be treated like pets, they must be released back into the wild and allowed to live their lives as they were meant to.
Davis wrote in a letter, “The animal work was needed and it was the most rewarding choice I could have made. Never a boring day.” She’s since retired and left the work and has left her legacy in the good hands of Fawn Rescue’s Animal Care Coordinator Matt Wolfe and its board of directors.
Although this was the perfect calling for Davis, she said the work isn’t for everyone. She encourages others to look for what matters to them. “Know thyself,” she wrote. “It’s important to find a mission that would supply a rewarding life.”
“There’s no secret to longevity,” she wrote. “I’ve learned to live one day at a time.”
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