Obituary of Mary H. Davis

Mimi Davis, born Mary Leffingwell Hitchcock in 1932, wife of the late Ray E. Davis, daughter of John Emerson Hitchcock and Sheila (Leffingwell) Hitchcock, died on Sunday, June 28th at 87. Mimi grew up in Manhattan and Port Washington at a time when “there were almost no cars” on mornings when she walked with her father to Central Park. She was privileged to be part of a vibrant Leffingwell clan and as a child enjoyed time spent with cousins, aunts, and her grandmother at the Glen Springs Resort Hotel in Watkins Glen, NY. Mimi attended Port Washington High School, graduated from the International College of the Sacred Heart in Tokyo, Japan in 1950, and attended Sweet Briar College. She married Ray E. Davis in 1956 on Long Island. After living briefly in Washington D.C. and California, they moved to Glastonbury, CT, and spent nearly 60 years in their East Glastonbury home. Mimi shared a love of horses with her daughters and husband. She spent many years with the Glastonbury Pony Club coordinating local and regional events and was a lifelong member of the USPC. She and Ray enjoyed attending sports events and travelled to several equestrian world championships as well as holding season tickets for the Whalers and Wolfpack. Her riding experience and affinity for animals may explain her eagerness to ride an elephant while accompanying a school trip to the Bronx Zoo. She also just liked to surprise people now and then. Mimi worked for more than fifteen years at CT OB/GYN as a medical assistant. She relished her time there and the experience of doing useful work with people she respected and admired. A member of St James Episcopal Church since first moving to Glastonbury, in her later years the church became a place she visited almost daily to check in with her friends and do what tasks she could find that needed doing. Mimi enjoyed the knitting group, helping in the kitchen, tending plants, and working on behalf of the Shepherd’s home in Middletown. These brief descriptions of some of her activities and interests leave out her love of reading, her lifelong involvement with dogs, and how much she enjoyed hosting her children and grandchildren at the beach; and no simple list can capture how much each of the friends, colleagues, co-conspirators, and family meant to her. Mimi leaves behind several good friends in addition to her four children, Leslie Davis, Ellen Goodenough and her husband Dennis, John Hooks Davis, and P. Hayle Davis. She also leaves four grandchildren, Dylan and Cara Goodenough, and Owen and Jackson Hooks Davis. There are no plans for a memorial service at this time, with the hope that conditions will allow one to be arranged in the future. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to Planned Parenthood, 345 Whitney Ave., New Haven, CT 06511.