Richard Davis - Obituary

ichard B. Davis, 79, of Ft. Washington, Maryland, died on Memorial Day, May 25, at Charlotte Hall Veterans Home. He is survived by his wife of 46 years, Mary; his daughter, Amy; his sisters, Barbara Schreiner and Betty Polak; his sister-in-law, Carol Ann Davis, and numerous nieces and nephews. Dick was born February 21, 1936, in Trucksville, Pennsylvania, to the late Samuel D. and Alice Crich Davis, joining his brother David and his sisters Alice and Barbara. Two other sisters, Carolyn and Bettyjean, were born after Dick. Most of his family was very musical. His father’s rich baritone made him a popular singer at local events and in his church choir. Alice was an instrumentalist; David was a tenor; Barbara was an accomplished pianist and singer; and Carolyn and Bettyjean sang. Only his mother was not musical, but it was she who taught Dick his first song—“Jesus Wants Me for a Sunbeam” when he was four years old—which he sang as a solo in a church show. It was also his mother who listened to him practice the piano and would call out “that was the wrong note.” When Dick was 15, his father died. A neighbor who was a Mason got a place for Dick at the Patton Masonic School for Boys in Eizabethtown, Pennsylvania. It was a vocational school, offering only carpentry and mechanics. Dick studied carpentry because, as a friend said, that was less dangerous. His real joy was singing in the chorus. The school was a boarding school, which Dick realized helped his mother by having one less mouth to feed. Music was Dick’s entire life. His neighbors listened to excellent music, whether they liked it or not. After a year at Wilkes College, he enlisted in the Navy and attended boot camp at Great Lakes. Again, his joy came from the bluejacket chorus. He became a Navy musician and was sent to the Navy School of Music to learn, as he said, “to play the piano the Navy way” and then be assigned to a fleet band. However, a friend asked him to audition for the Sea Chanters, a new group of men formed to perpetuate the songs of the sea. He auditioned as a tenor and on the bass drum because each singer had to play an instrument if needed for the ceremonial band. Dick chose the drum because, in his words, “any fool can keep a beat.” Dick spent nearly 20 years in the Sea Chanters, performing at the Kennedy Center, at the Berlin Wall, on President Eisenhower’s good will tour in Brazil, and on the aircraft carrier carrying President Ford in New York City in 1976. While he sang for many presidents, he liked just as much to sing in outdoor concerts and at Arlington Cemetery. He retired from the Navy as a chief musician and started a second career as a piano tuner. Dick also sang in his church choir at Southminster Presbyterian Church in Oxon Hill, Maryland, and was a longtime member of the Maryland Choral Society. He served briefly as choir director and also directed an enthusiastic children’s choir, for which he composed and arranged several pieces of music. Dick will be remembered for his gentleness, his kindness, and his love for his family, friends, children, and animals as well as for his absentmindedness. He once drove off for a job without his uniform; Mary dashed to her car to chase him with the uniform and saw him speeding home on the other side of route 295. He had to be reminded of dates and times for events, but he never forgot a friend or shipmate. He was the Dad on the street who answered every knock from a child announcing a missed bus. He knew every school and child within 10 miles. A memorial service of celebration will be held on Saturday, June 13, at 11:00 a.m. at SouthminsterPresbyterian Church, 7801 Livingston Road, Oxon Hill, MD 20745. The family will receive guests at 10:30 a.m. prior to the service. Burial will be at a later date at Arlington National Cemetery. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the Friends of the Oxon Hill Library, c/o Oxon Hill Public Library, 6200 Oxon Hill Road, Oxon Hill, MD 20745.