Edith Davis

Edith Prescott Davis, born Edith Prescott Luckett on July 16, 1888, in Petersburg, Virginia, was an American stage and film actress whose Broadway career spanned from 1926 to 1932. The ninth and last child of Sarah Frances (née Whitlock) and Charles Edward Luckett, she grew up in Washington, D.C., where her father was employed by the Adams Express Company. She was known by the nickname "Lucky" and began performing on stage in Baltimore at the age of 13. By the time she was 18, she had relocated to New York City to pursue her career.

Davis worked not only on Broadway but also with regional stock companies along the East Coast. Her film appearances included The Little Jewess (1914), The Coming Power (1914), The Spirit of the Poppy (1914), and The Other Girl (1915). Among her professional acquaintances and friends were Walter Huston, George M. Cohan, Spencer Tracy, Zasu Pitts, Louis Calhern, David Belasco, and Alla Nazimova. Her Broadway credits included the musical Piggy, the revue The Merry World, and the musical Tell Her the Truth. Her final Broadway appearance came in 1928, in Elmer the Great, alongside Walter Huston and Kay Francis.

In 1916, Davis married Kenneth Seymour Robbins of Pittsfield, Massachusetts. The couple had one daughter, christened Anne Frances Robbins but known as Nancy. The marriage ended in separation and later divorce, and while Davis continued touring with acting companies, Nancy lived with Davis's sister's family in Bethesda, Maryland. During a sea voyage to the United Kingdom in 1928, Davis met Loyal Edward Davis, a Chicago neurosurgeon. The two married on May 21, 1929, and Davis relocated to Chicago with Nancy, where she continued performing on radio programs under the name Edith Luckett Davis. Loyal Davis adopted Nancy when she was 17, legally changing her surname to Davis.

In Chicago, Davis became active in community and charitable organizations. She organized the gift shop and served on the board at Passavant Hospital, and worked with the Women's Division of the Chicago Charity Fund, serving as chairwoman from 1938 to 1963. Her daughter Nancy eventually moved to California, became an actress, and married Ronald Reagan. Reagan sent flowers to Davis each year on Nancy's birthday.

When Loyal Davis retired as Chief of Surgery in 1963, the couple moved to Phoenix, Arizona. Davis volunteered with the United Cerebral Palsy Crusade and served on the board of the American Cancer Society. In 1983, she received the Arizona Lifetime Achievement Award for her service to the mentally impaired, an award that was subsequently renamed the Edith Davis Award. Loyal Davis died in 1982 of congestive heart failure, after 53 years of marriage, following which Davis moved to a smaller apartment in Phoenix. She died on October 26, 1987, at the age of 99, from a stroke. Her funeral in Phoenix was attended by her daughter Nancy, then serving as First Lady of the United States, President Ronald Reagan, and her stepson Dr. Richard Davis. She and Loyal Davis are interred in the marble mausoleum at Greenwood/Memory Lawn Mortuary and Cemetery in Phoenix.