Busy designer, Orange church choir member Lorraine Davis turns 90 Tuesday

New Haven Register (CT)

Aug. 28--ORANGE -- Lorraine Davis is turning 90 years old Tuesday and shows no signs of slowing down.

"I have so much energy I could build a house when I get up in the morning," Davis said.

Well, that's a good thing because at 90 Davis still works every day at her interior design business, belongs to L.A. Fitness where she has a personal trainer, exercises four times a week and takes an advanced tai chi class. Davis also sings in her church choir and plays in the bell choir.

Her social life includes subscriptions to six theaters in Connecticut and wherever she goes with friends, Davis does the driving, scheduling the seating ahead of time, a friend said. In two years, she's put 31,000 miles on a new car.

"She's an amazing lady," said longtime friend and fellow choir member Dotti Arcovitch of Milford, who was also an interior design student of Davis. "She has a social calendar that would run me ragged. Her schedule goes from morning to night."

Davis -- like others who rack up the decades -- often gets asked, "What's your secret?"

She replies: "I don't drink, I don't smoke. Two out of three isn't bad."

Her genes are a factor, too, Davis said, as her mother lived until age 89 and her father to 84.

So far, for what she refers to as "wrapping up" her 90th year, Davis has had seven birthday dinners with small groups of friends. Her birthday is Tuesday.

On Sunday Davis treated her Orange Congregational Church family to cake after the service and chose napkins in all colors of the rainbow as well as a rainbow-themed cake to show solidarity with the LBGTQI community in light of the church recently officially declaring itself "open and affirming."

Davis has a strong speaking and singing voice at 90 and. for her take-control ways, has been nicknamed "Sarge" by choir members -- a name she also earned independently in her old tap dancing group.

Davis opened her Designer's Studio LLC in 1951 and still works every day in the field, the business sustained by new generations among established customers such as Joyce Cecarelli Garofalo of Woodbridge.

Garofalo said Davis has done interior design for three generations in their family, beginning when Garofalo, now 70, was 8 years old.

"She has such a knack for style and nothing is too exhausting for her,"Garofalo said. "She made it such a labor of love." She noted Davis always went out of her way to include husbands' opinions in her design consultations.

A 1949 graduate of Syracuse University, Davis was also a professor of interior design for 34 years at Paier College of Art in Hamden, where she served as chairman of the department.

Davis had an office until nine years ago when she began working out of her West Haven home. Her late husband of 58 years, Miles Davis, was office manager of the design business for many years.

"The thing I'm most proud of is that people can't say, 'I walked into a house and; (it's apparent that) Lorraine Davis did it."

That's because Davis-designed spaces don't look alike since they're customized to the client's style and wants, which she learns in an extensive consultation.

Davis, who grew up in Ohio, was originally going to become a laboratory technician -- her dad was a chemist -- but then in 1945 the school administered aptitude tests based on personality and hers suggested something along the lines of interior designer because of her outgoing personality.

Davis moved to West Haven in 1949 after college because her Miles grew up here and because, as a designer, she wanted to live close to New York City.

Miles, also a Syracuse graduate, was in the insurance business and at that time the city of West Haven split their various insurance needs among local agencies and he had an edge because he had lived in West Haven since age 2, Davis said.

She met Miles on a blind date and she liked that he beat her those first weeks in bowling, ping pong, chess and tennis -- all activities in which she excelled. To her surprise, he even played a better duplicate bridge hand.

Davis finally told him she found it hard to believe that he just happened to know all her favorite activities. He then admitted he had done some "research" to woo her.

Davis said she joined Orange Congregational Church in 1982 because of the quality of the choir.

While still a lovely-sounding member of the church choir, Davis chuckles over her changing voice, which as expected is deepening with age.

Davis said she was a soprano as a child, then became an alto, then a second alto, a first tenor and now second tenor.

"The basses (in the church choir) are scared silly," she quipped, because that's for the deepest voices.

Choir director Bryan Campbell said it's unusual to have a 90-year-old choir member and Davis keeps up with it all.

Campbell said he and Davis bonded when they met because they were both from Ohio and she has since designed the interior of his condo. He said her success has a lot to do with her strong, active people connections.

An active member of the church, Davis is chair of the church's furnishings committee and has designed the interior of some rooms in the church.

Davis, who takes a handful of vitamins each day, is slender with a youthful face for 90 and a brisk gait. She said she has never in her life taken a pain pill -- not even an ibuprofen -- and has never used moisturizer or other product on her skin.

She and Miles have a son, Gary Davis of Milford, their daughter-in-law Darlene and a granddaughter, Kelly Davis, 24.

Like other 90-year-olds, Davis has soaked up a lot of wisdom through the decades and one of her favorite philosophies: "You can decide whether you're going to be happy and enjoy" any given day, she said.

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