Patricia Davis, pioneering ICU nurse and Nancy Reagan’s sister-in-law, dies at 86

Patricia Davis, 86, of Villanova, a pioneering intensive care nurse and the sister-in-law of former first lady Nancy Reagan, died Wednesday, Feb. 10, of cancer at home.

A caregiver her whole life, Mrs. Davis was the head nurse of the first surgical intensive care unit at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania. There she met Dr. Richard A. Davis, and they married in 1960.

Dr. Davis is the brother of Nancy Reagan, and he and Mrs. Davis visited President Ronald Reagan and his family often at the White House and elsewhere during the president’s long political career. The two families got together in Washington at Christmas and on the Fourth of July, and the Davises attended both inaugurations.

Mrs. Davis and her husband also spent their 25th wedding anniversary in November 1985 at the White House with the Reagans. That was shortly after the president returned from his historic first meeting with then-Soviet General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev at the Geneva Summit to discuss the Cold War-era arms race.

An entry in President Reagan’s daily diary for Tuesday, Jan. 27, 1987, lists Dr. and Mrs. Davis and their children, son Geoffrey and daughter Anne, as guests for a 6:45 p.m. dinner at the White House. Later, at 8:37 p.m., the group “motored from the North Grounds to the U.S. Capitol, East Front” for Reagan’s State of the Union address.

“The proximity of the families was wonderful,” said Anne Peterson, Mrs. Davis’ daughter. “They were so gracious, and my mother loved going to Washington.”

Born on Sept. 1, 1934, in St. Marys, Pa., about 120 miles northeast of Pittsburgh, Mrs. Davis set out for Philadelphia after high school to study nursing at the University of Pennsylvania. One of four sisters, she was independent, focused on education, and determined that nursing and health care were her calling.

Mrs. Davis graduated from Penn’s School of Nursing in 1955, and started working as a nurse at the university hospital. She became head nurse when Penn opened its first surgical ICU in 1959, one of the first in the country, and spent the rest of her life working and volunteering with hospital staff and patients.

“She was truly always committed to taking care of others, whether that was her patients, her husband, children, extended family, or those who were hospitalized and struggling,” her daughter said.

Mrs. Davis met her husband after he arrived from Chicago in 1959 to become a neurosurgeon and professor at Penn. They were married less than a year after they met, and moved in 1968 to Villanova, where they raised their children.

Although she retired as a nurse after her son was born in 1961, Mrs. Davis continued to be a presence at the hospital, serving as a volunteer on several committees and with organizations that ministered to patients and assisted staff. Few patients spent a Christmas or Easter in the hospital without a visit from Mrs. Davis when she was active.

“She knew the value of giving back,” her daughter said.

Mrs. Davis liked to travel and was an avid photographer, decorator, and gardener. She and her husband built their home, and she planted trees, bushes, and flowers around it that she knew would make it special for anyone who visited.

“She always put me, and everyone, in front of her,” her daughter said. “She was selfless.”

In addition to her husband and children, Mrs. Davis is survived by three grandsons, two sisters, and other relatives.

A private service is to be held later.