DEBORAH JORDAN DAVIS (1932-2025)
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Actor and former managing director of ShawChicago, Deborah Davis, passed away on December 18 at the age of 93. Deb (as she was known to her theater friends) rekindled her love of theater in Chicago and then spent more than 30 years in stage roles and theatrical endeavors with incredible passion at every turn. As a founding member, actor, and managing director, she guided ShawChicago through two artistic directors and several physical transitions. She was a member of Teatro Vista where she helped to spearhead the playreading committee and hosted many discussions and celebrations. She also appeared on many stages, including Next Theater and Famous Door. Additionally, she was nominated for a Jeff citation for her role in Claudia Allen’s play, HANNAH FREE, at Bailiwick.
Deb was born in Chicago in 1932 to Edwin Pratt Jordan, an internist and national medical columnist, and Marjorie Crichton Jordan. The family moved to Cleveland OH, where she spent three years in high school years before the family moved to Mexico City for a year. Deb attended Mexico City College, and her experiences there with Hispanic culture and studying Spanish had a profound impact on her later choices in life. She received her undergraduate degree in Anthropology from Bryn Mawr College and a Masters in Library Science from Simmons College in Boston. She began working as a librarian in Seattle and met her future husband, William Scott Spiller, whom she married in 1956. They moved to Mobile, AL and began raising their three children. At this time, Deb worked as a children's librarian and began her theater career with the community theater company, The Joe Jefferson Players. She divorced in 1970 and eventually moved with the children to Fredericksburg, VA, where she became the Director of the Central Rappahannock Regional Library. In 1979, they moved to Chicago where she worked for The Northern Trust and the Chicago Public Library. She then met and married John M. Davis, a psychiatrist researcher, who had two children of his own. After she and John divorced, she eventually moved to the Washington, DC area for the last two years of her life. Theater was truly the love of her third act. Deb is survived by her three children—Margery “Markey” Scott Squier (Dennis), Joanna “Jody” Spiller Ryan (Geoff), and Robert “Rob” Jordan Spiller (Holly); two stepchildren—Richard Davis and Kathy Davis-Gibbons; nine grandchildren and six great grandchildren. She is also survived by her brother, David Crichton Jordan, her sister Mary Jordan Baker, and seven nieces and nephews. |