Pat Davey Eulogy
By Jeannette Doud

We shall miss Pat Davey’s warm smile, hearty handshake, and gracious personality. Sadly, we must report to our readers that Pat passed away in Bradenton, Florida, October 5, 2005 following a short illness.

Pat loved Mackinac with all his heart and spent many happy summers here. We would always meet each Sunday morning at the 9 a.m. mass at Ste. Anne’s and would exchange greetings. He was a dear and wonderful friend whom will be sadly missed. He enjoyed many walks on his favorite Island and riding his bicycle around the shore with his friends.

Pat was born December 15, 1924 in Lansing, the youngest of seven children in a typical large, happy family. Pat’s father was a surgeon and his mother played the organ and sang Sunday mass at Ste. Anne’s for 20 years.

Pat spent summers at the family’s Ballynahinch Cottage (last cottage east of Mission Church). In 1942, after he graduated from high school, he served in the U.S. Navy in the Pacific until the end of the war. He spent the next four summers on the Island while he was a student at Michigan State University. After graduation, he moved to Florida to start a business, where he lived until his death.

Pat has been returning to Mackinac for the past 25 years for two months each summer, happily settled in Melly Hagenbaugh’s Lesley Court condominium, where he was close to the water.

We all know Pat’s great admiration for Mackinac. He loved the wooded area, where he could see and enjoy all the wildflowers when he walked the trails. He knew every freighter, loved the stars, clear blue skies, and cool summer weather. Most of all, he loved coming back home.

Pat is survived by his four children, Kevin, Timothy, and Janet of Florida and Brian of Oregon. He is also survived by eight grandchildren.

Deepest sympathy to the family from Island friends. We shall miss Pat, a favorite and much loved friend for many years.

Pat’s close friends on Mackinac were Steve Doud, Bill Squires, and my brother, Pat Chambers, all now in heaven. What a reunion there will be. Just bet they will be talking Mackinac.

Pat’s nephew, Joe Davey, and wife, Mary, of Bloomfield Hills are owners of the East Bluff cottage formerly owned by the Williams family of Chicago, longtime summer cottagers.

It gave Pat a great deal of pleasure to know that the Davey family was back to spend summers on Mackinac, their beloved Island.

We welcome Joe and Mary and shall visit them next summer.