Wilma Colene Stattner Davis

Monday, August 10, 2020

It is with profound sadness and heartbreak that the family of Wilma Colene Stattner Davis announces her passing on July 29, 2020. Wilma died of natural causes at the age of 84 in her beloved hometown Cloverdale.

She was born April 13, 1936, the daughter of Alfred and Mary Stattner.

She married John L. Davis on Aug. 13, 1955, and their love endured for 53 beautiful years until his passing in 2009.

Wilma was celebrated for her cheerful disposition, ready smile, chocolate chip cookies, mixed metaphors (“I give you 30 minutes and you take a mile!”) and the love and the pride she had in her family. She was also admired for her curious ability to wash dishes in boiling hot water, her ability to cure virtually everything with Vick’s Vapor Rub and her ability to use her toes like fingers.

She loved to travel. She always had her finger on the atlas in her lap and her finger on exactly where she was. As her family members spread across the country over time, she tracked their locations with stickpins on a map in the kitchen.

She hosted epic bingo games with the best prizes ever every Thanksgiving, and she wore her bingo vest like nobody’s business.

Most importantly, her faith in the Lord was strong, and she read and believed the Word daily.

Wilma parented with love and logic long before it was fashionable, and her creative and effective methods for reining in and redirecting wayward children will always be admired by those who knew her.

She missed her children and grands when they were gone, and when someone was leaving and she knew they wouldn’t be back for months, she always cried. This made saying goodbye difficult and sometimes awkward, but you knew she would dry her tears and run to her porch light switch which she would flick on and off as you drove off. That strobing light conveyed so many messages with no words at all: “I love you.” “I will miss you.” “Travel safe.” “Return to me.”

If you had asked Wilma how she would like to go, she would have said, “Swinging on my porch swing on a hot summer day.” So it came as no surprise to anyone that Wilma passed while swinging on her porch swing on a hot summer day. Just as Wilma really knew how to live, she really knew how to die.

Wilma is survived by all six of her children: Kerry Davis (Linda), Louis Davis, John Davis, Konnie Davis Herbert (Chris), Kevin Davis (Dawne) and Kristi Davis Laxton (Dave). She is also survived by 19 grandchildren and 28 great-grandchildren. She is survived by her brother Larry Stattner (Sue).

She was preceded in death by her sister Barbara Stattner Mugg.

The family looks forward to hosting a huge celebration of Wilma’s life once the pandemic is in the rear-view mirror.