Former Costume designer's pieces to be displayed at memorial service

Evelyn Davis, beloved costumer for the Department of Theatre, passed away July 9 at the age of 91.

Davis was born and raised in Toledo where she reared five children.

She worked in the costume shop for nearly 20 years until her retirement in 1981.

"She just recently passed away and there will be a memorial service for her that Bill [Smith, former faculty designer for the costume shop] and some other people that worked with her here on campus are putting together. I am pulling a few things that Evelyn built and putting them on display on mannequins for the memorial," said the current costume shop director Kaye Pope.

Davis worked for Bill Smith who was the faculty costume designer for about 20 to 30 years.

"He retired the first year I started, almost 20 years ago," Pope said. Pope said Evelyn's expertise was in Victorian and Edwardian styles of the 18th Century. "This one dress is a gray silk chiffon Edwardian style and it's pretty frail," Pope said. "The shoulders are ripping every time you pick it up, so it's not worthy to go on stage anymore, but we want to display it because it really demonstrates her cutting skills. She did real quality work."

Davis' costumes have gone unused because no recent performances have been set in Victorian or Edwardian styles.

Smith will be in attendance at the memorial and will be giving a presentation on her work.

"[She] was his cutter or draper and he absolutely adored her. He [still] raves about the quality of her cutting skills," Pope said. Two years after her retirement, Davis became housemother of Mauck Hall and costumer at Hillsdale College in Hillsdale, Mich. She held her position at Hillsdale for 15 years.

The memorial service for Davis is tomorrow at 6 p.m. in the Center for Performing Arts.