Jeannie Davis Forman
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Jeannie Davis Forman of Dallas passed peacefully on October 14th, 2022, at her home surrounded by friends and family.
Born November 2nd, 1931, to the parents of English teacher Margaret Davis and merchant Edward Henry Davis, Margaret Jeanne Davis was raised in the small farming town of Estelline, South Dakota. Her father's general store was the lifeblood of their small community and her family's dedication to every customer as their own family, regardless of means, was a belief that informed Jeannie's interaction with everyone she met personally and professionally throughout her own life.
A graduate of Macalester College in St. Paul, MN, Jeannie embraced the college and the city meeting Don Forman, her future husband of 47 years, and sharing common interests in arts, culture, food, and friends. They married in 1955 while he was working at IBM and she at 3M.
In 1969 they relocated to Dallas for the second time which pleased Jeannie to no end due to her distaste for cold and snow and her love of warm weather. Over the next decade she raised her two children and then re-entered the workforce in the 1980s - first at Dallas Market Center, then at Amersol selling window film, and also Horchow Finale on weekends. Her passion for interior design and architecture was infectious and these jobs provided her tremendous satisfaction. She continued to work at Amersol well into her later years until gently encouraged into retirement by her family and friends.
Jeannie was a tremendous cook and host. Her cooking was an elevation in the art of flavor but also in efficiency of execution. She was also an expert at cooking meat and a magician making margaritas. Clearly Jeannie loved to eat - her own cooking, at restaurants, and other people's dishes. But more than anything she loved to cook for others in the context of entertaining; dinner parties, holidays, and fundraising events. The neighborhood parties she hosted are legendary.
Jeannie and Don also loved to travel engaging her passion for food, architecture, and design with visits to the UK, France, Italy, Padre Island, Antigua, Mexico, and New Mexico, often with friends.
Jeannie loved her home of 53 years in North Dallas and spending time with her dogs she called "fur people." Taking care of her house, her yard, cooking and her voracious love of reading all contributed to her well-being, her long and healthy life and her sharp mind right up to this summer, all despite having lost her adoring husband twenty years earlier. After Don passed in 2002, she shifted her focus and attention to her only grand-child Nina born just two years later.
Jeannie was both pragmatic and stoic. She did not suffer fools easily and had little patience for melodrama. She saved that for the operas she and Don enjoyed so much. However, she was also a rock for others offering counsel and providing comfort and advice to friends and their families with intelligence, grace, and humor. Jeannie's love of life and of people was boundless, right up to her passing, and that joy will be remembered in her tremendous smile, sparkling eyes, and purity of presence.
Jeannie is preceded in death by her husband Don Forman, her parents Margaret and Edward Davis, and is survived by her daughter Janet Devault, son Robert Forman, grand-daughter Nina Forman, daughter in-law Elizabeth Tonne, sister in-law Jeanette Berg, brother in-law Roger Forman, their families, and her wonderful and dear friends.
In lieu of flowers please send donations to the SPCA of Texas.
A Service for Jeannie Davis Forman will be Monday, October 24, 2022 at 10:00 AM in the Memorial Chapel at Restland Funeral Home in Dallas, Texas.