Not often photographed herself, she made many of our trips into memories we could revisit and share with others. We have lost a good friend that left much with us to remember her by.

I know her absence is felt by all of us the flew with her.

When I look above the formation for her little red bat suit I'll still smile into the sun and wink. She will be part of our flights, in our memory, for a long time to come.

God's Bluest and Brightest Skies to you Jan.

George

Tom Birdwell

I'm going to miss you teasing me about my walking like a crippled bear.

I'm going to miss teasing you about your walking like a penguin.

I'm going to miss how you said we gimps should stick together.

I'm going to miss your wonderful smile, under all that gruff exterior.

I'm going to miss sitting in your travel trailer drinking your beer.

I'm going to miss your great video.

Most of all Jan, I'm going to miss the opportunity to be as good a friend to you, as you were to me. Damn, this is too hard..........................

jim

birdwalk...jan sorta walked like a bird, teased her about it. double fake hips will do that to a person. many would retire from any activity, not jan.

it was colder than expected in florida and I loaned jan a sweat suit, she laughed when I offered it to her.

anything you can get over your skinny butt won't fit me she said. great materials these things are made of, she returned it before we parted, said see ya next year, don't forget the boogie @ lodi.

i remember the constant ear to ear grin she had while framing jimbo's pie brigade the year past, she really enjoyed that

i remember she couldn't talk her way out of a traffic ticket...we all laughed about that over dinner..

i remember her organizing the @ sign jump this year..dirt it again, get it right... I think she took lessons from jerry on organizing

i remember...jan

blue ones lady

james

Jan was one of my 'poobahs' - coach-dives and critiques, always there, a rock of Gibraltar, my bestest videographer at Quincy and Sebastian. The KDFC at-sign. It's hard to imagine the DZ 'home' without her.

grrr B-22629

I first met Jan Davis at Peanut's Drunk/Pie Fest, in Crawfordsville, Indiana. I hadn't met Peanut yet, but his antics on the NG (as well as having a boogie named after him) intrigued me. Peanut introduced me to Jan, a woman with great spirit, and a mouth to match.

Initially, I wasn't totally enamoured with her, to say the least. I'm sure people say the same about me; I have been known to be brash and sarcastic. Qualities that cover up scars and hurt from the past.

I most recently saw her at the RecDot boogie in Sebastian. I playfully nudged her as she was sitting on the ground, back turned, and she seemed genuinely glad to see me. She offered to lend me some money: I was in a bit of a snit, financially. Fortunately, it worked out that I didn't need to borrow any, and for whatever reason, we really "bonded" at that boogie.

Jan filmed my 400th jump that weekend; a "Magic Carpet Ride" with Johnny Muff, Grrr, Peanut, and a host of others.

Jan was invincible, having survived similar tragedies to mine in her life... tragedies that made mine look small in comparison. I never talked with her about it... she wasn't that close of a friend, until recently. But I would. We were going to hang out with each other when I would be in California for a month. We were going out on the town, the two head-strong, "been-there-done-that" women.

I've heard some of the laments on the NG about "I was gonna write..." and I'm afraid that I'm in that league, too. I was gonna write her about her rec dot photos; I was gonna write her about my upcoming trip to CA; I was gonna write her about her impending surgery; I was gonna write.......

And so, Jan: I read the news today, oh boy.

And I'm over 6000 miles away. I feel so helpless.

All I could do was go down to the hotel bar and ask if they had anything with the word, 'Canadian' on the bottle. I was numb until that point, but since the hotel bartender and I were the only two in the place, I offered him a drink on me, and toasted to you. And cried.

Jan.

Fearless, big-hearted, rapier-witted, sweet, lover of life, Jan.

I will truly miss you, my dear sister.

May you fly free forever...

Love,

Wendy

0:-)

blues @nne

I emailed Bozo ... I don't have "balls," I told him. "Will you tell her?" I hated like hell to be on the receiving end of Jan's wrath. I hated like hell to be the bearer of bad news. Lord knows, Jan did have a hot temper.

"I pity the poor person answering USPA's phones on Monday morning," was Bozo's response when I asked him how Jan had taken the news. "Her reaction? Ummmm, does the word Nuclear seem an appropriate description?"

Of course, Jan just called USPA ... made her displeasure known ... and got a nice apology ... both in print and in person. "Rita says you should give me a cover in compensation ... " she informed the hapless publications director. I think they would have done it too ... the first chance they got. I sure wish they would find a way to do it now ... it would be a fitting memorial to a wonderfully talented person ...

I love you Jan ... and I will always hold you in my heart ... and in my soul. Until we meet again one day ... on another plane ... in another realm ... fly high ... and blue ... blue skies to you always!

--rita

Fly free on the wind forever.

We'll miss you.

Robbie Culver

I'll have a beer in her memory. Hoping she would be happy with that.

Espen
ALF#1

Scott Watson

Most recently Jan toured the country to all the Boogies, meeting bunches of folks.

Jan was amazing. Incredible energy.

Jan Meyer

Todd Owen

The Lady and the Bird
in memory of Jan Davis

A lady sat with her bird
She listened, and she heard
A wonderous tale, of flying high
Floating free in the sky

Above the earth, on a wing
The bird taught the lady how to sing
They sang of life, and of love so true
Of flying free in a sky so blue

The bird and the lady would spend the day
Dancing up there, a time to play
The bird had feathers for his flight
The lady had silk, to fall so light

The lady returned to earth with the song
Which to her friends she passed along
She took them with her so they could see
What it was like to be truly free

The song still grows like a raging fire
Though one less voice is in the choir
With her passing, the song doesn't end
It remembers her, the lady our friend

jan battled it out to the very end. the absolute highest possible compliment that i can personally pay to someone is that they have "indominable spirit."

even old timers can learn from jan davis.

Fastsftail

Until now I have been speechless. Thinking about the confusion on the newsgroup back when the other Jan Davis went in at El Cap and how everyone was concerned about which one it was. Jan posted, hoping to relieve those worried about her. Now there is no confusion, sadly.

Jan filmed my first (and only, to this day) @-sign dive at Lodi, last year at KDFC. I'll never forget how she put the pressure on me to do well (making the experienced RW flyer to freeflyer comments about being on an upcoming RW skydive), then did the tough thing of posititively commenting this young, punk kid, freeflyer's job on the skydive afterwords. That was one of my most favorite videos, and one of the skydives that I felt I accomplished the most and felt the best about. She filmed it.

May Jan rest while in the skies above.
Fly on, fly well, fly free...
Paul Robinson

I was supposed to jump with Jan Davis last summer, while she was here is the Cincinnati area. Due to reason that neither of us could control, we never got to make that jump, but I spent at least 4 or 5 hours on the phone every night, during the entire week she was here. When I had to go to the bathroom, my fiancee talked with her, the really hit it off. Since then we spent a couple of hundred hours IM'ing each other.

We wanted to do a camera jump together because, as far as we knew, we were the only two total hip joint replacement skydivers in the world. I have finally gotten my medical problems solved and was looking forward to making a POPS meet this summer and jumping with her.

She was always messing with me saying that she was "better", because she had her hips replaced before I did and that made her the world's "first" hip joint replacement skydiver. We had a lot of fun playing "one upmanship" on the hip joint thing. I guess it made us feel like we were still in the game, even after some segments of society had written us off.

I never got to meet Jan, but I feel like I have known her all my life. She got deep into a lot of us, emotionally and a lot of people are going to miss her. I am proud to be one of those who will. What makes me a little better, is that, I took the time to tell her that, when she was alive.

I am having those feelings, that all of us "old-timers" have, when a friend goes in, those feeling that say, "maybe it's time to hang it up, maybe the odds are building up against me, maybe I should listen to the neighbors and quit acting like a young kid." Then again, maybe I should think about what Jan Devil would say, "Screw em George, never let age interfere with a happy childhood, go for it."

Gonna miss that cranky old bird lady, A WHOLE LOT ! I know I'm not alone in that one.

Thanks for lending an ear folks.

Save me a slot, just incase.

George Rabe

Jan was a hard woman on the outside. She called a spade a spade, and I respected that about her, even when I didn't think it was a spade. Remember the idiot who got on her and Jimbo a couple months ago, posting their addresses and phone numbers? I talked to Jan on the phone one of those nights, I think her words were something along the lines of "He just fucked with the wrong bitch" :-) Jan was actually a softie. Speaking to her about matters of the heart revealed her feminine side in an instant. Jan was a joker. Hands up - who's been on the brunt of those jokes? Or pies for that matter. Jan was tough. Anyone who's seen her land, then get up and walk inside knows it. Making 500+ jumps a year with her physical problems was enough to garner respect from just about anyone. I've seen Jan pissed off, I've seen her sad, I've seen her cackle, belly laugh, and cry. I'm sure she'd give the shirt off her back to a friend in an instant. She was truly independent, something we don't see often. She was happier than the vast majority of us, despite the less than perfect cards life dealt her.

In short, Jan lived her life well.

Despite the health problems (recently worsening), Jan kept living life more than the vast majority of people. She was a skydiver. She deployed her main and it didn't work.
She chopped it.
She deployed her reserve and it entangled her camera helmet.
She chopped the helmet.
She worked the problem into the ground.

In short, Jan died well.

When I get to my other computer, I'll find that poem Paul Joseph posted a couple years ago...it seems relevant. If I can, I'll post on the web the last video I've got that Jan shot...I took Spurgeon on a tandem, and like this one, we were last out. Jan got great video of the Otter diving behind us, then came in and docked and spun us around, grinning the whole time. When I get to Lodi next month for the KDFC boogie that Jan started a couple years ago, at least a few of us will make a jump in her memory. If folks are lazy and her trailer's still there, Jimbo and I will break in and drink her beer.

These things won't make it better, but they're things to do. I'll still miss my friend. I'll still regret turning down the Sebastian boogie every time she tried to talk me into it. I'll still regret not jumping with her in Nevada last December. I'll still look for her online once in awhile, and I'm sure I'll look for her at Lodi occasionally. Despite these things, I'll also do the same thing Jan did every day of her life. Keep on keepin' on.

Blue skies, black death,
Dave
aka "live-in-a-cave", "liverdave", and several other unsavory terms...and sad that I won't see more of them from Jan.

Julie

After working on me through November and December, she finally got me out to Lodi for a jump in January. I did a tandem with Cloudbuster, and she flew camera. I was hooked. I did another tandem a week later, and the week after that I was going to do it again -- only she pulled a fast one and scheduled me for S/L training instead.

When they moved me up to AFF for the last few dives she flew camera. And when I graduated she flew my first jump with me. That was in February. Since then she's always done a few jumps with me every weekend. She told me she felt responsible since I was the only person she'd ever talked into diving who stuck with it. She even arranged for me to be pied when I came off student status (and got it on film). She wanted me to love the sport the same way she did.

Saturday morning I made my 50th jump. The DZ was so busy that I didn't get a chance to say anthing to her before her final dive.

She was constantly lecturing me on how to do things well, I'd even taken to calling her Mom occasionally (and got away with it without comment from her). If I left the DZ early on a Saturday for a party, she'd give me a hard time. She and I would be on IM from the moment I got into the office until I left in the evening. Sometimes we'd be talking during the evening as well. We probably chatted everyday she wasn't at a a boogie since January. I crashed down at her place once in a while, and when she needed to fly out to a boogie, she'd crash at mine, and then I'd take her to the airport and pick her up afterwards. She cried on my shoulder about her romances, and sent me pictures and asked my opinions of people she was considering dating.

She could seem so hard and caloused on the outside sometime, but she had a knack for accepting people as they were. Her views and mine would never agree on many subjects, that didn't keep us from talking about them and it didn't keep us from being close friends. That's something that puts her miles beyond most people. She was a wonderful person.

We talked a lot about her hips, she worried about getting through the jump season before surgery. She'd seen her surgeon Thursday, and he'd told her that it was fine to jump until something broke, and if nothing broke through the summer, she could schedule her surgery for next winter. She was so damned happy about that. She'd been in some pain, but got ahold of medication for it and was really enjoying diving for the first time in a couple months (she said). Last Sunday she even jumped with her old team and was gleeful at how nice it was to jump again with people on that level. She was even considering getting back into competition after surgery...

Saturday morning her right hip came out of its socket at the DZ. It's happened a couple other times and she and I had rehearsed what to do. After we got everyone's panic under control it only took me a moment to get it back in. The didn't want her to fly after that, she was devistated. It was only after she talked to the DZ owner (Bill Dause) that she got the go ahead to continue flying (I need to emphasise that this had nothing to do with her accident). Her reaction to not being allowed to jump was just incredible. Her love for the sport was intense.

Over the past couple weeks she and I had talked a lot about malfunctions and she'd become increasingly worried about snags on her camera. She forwarded me a report on the death of a camera flier back east just last Sunday. We'd even talked about what could be done to change designs to make things safer. She also had started practicing getting her helmet off fast in case it happened. She was definitely worried and wary. I can't help wonder if this worry contributed to the accident, but I don't pretend to know.

Her friend and packer Yvonne and I jumped together Sunday morning. I cried all the way to 14,000 ft and she took over when we landed. But we jumped. We did our best to duplicate the jump we'd made with Jan last week, and I think we managed.

The last jump I had with her was last Sunday. She'd wanted to do something fun. It was late afternoon, the skies had clouded a bit (with a high ceiling) and the tandems had all gone away. She'd told me she wanted to do something fun. She had me crouch in the doorway of the Otter, straddled my lap put her arms around me and we fell out backwards, tumbling end over end as she made faces at me. She swears she could hear me screaming, but I truly enjoyed it. We broke that at about 10k and then hooked up again and she spun me around in circles until I couldn't hold on to her any more. When we got to the ground she announced "See? It isn't all work. We do have fun."

The staff at Lodi did a jump for her on Sunday. They invited me along (bless them). Bill Dause and I and someone I don't know formed the base for about a 20-way jump. It was my first large jump (yes, I bought beer). It was an utter zoo. Bodies flying everywhere, no one quite linking up. As I watched it all happen I thought, "Jan would have loved it". I think she'd have been disappointed if we all got it right.

Last week I took over the maintenance on her website. We'd started to rework a lot of things. I'd gotten the rec.skydive pictures up, but I don't know if she ever announced it. I'm at a loss about what to do with it now, best to just let it sit, I guess.

I will keep jumping, but there will always be a hole in my heart where Jan was.

-Marcie Lovell

From recent posts I gather that we cant.

(Needless to say I wrote & send it & then downloaded the 242 assorted post and heard the news I didn't want to hear)

Maybe I should tattoo STUPID on MY forehead.

I liked your posts and your emails.

I will miss you - Devil woman.

Like I said - removable white board marker ink... with the stupid thing being of course that you are not there anymore - can we undo that please, God?

Well maybe the smart thing is you still are as you believed you would be. (Brand new hips of course - the genuine thing, no artificial steel replacements...)

As long as we miss you and remember you - you are.

Shouldn't be too hard...(Remember the trouble we had exchanging pictures through the mail where my jpg was obviously something else than your jpg? How smart we felt when we finally got to 'see' each other? The difference between 'lebians' and 'lesbans'?)

This is where I'm supposed to write the condolences to the family.

Condolences to all of us.

(And special thanks to George Rabe for the 'dont let old age interfere with a happy childhood' quote... I think I will make another skydive. Well, maybe two..)

Peter Liemberg

What we have done for ourselves alone dies with us;
what we have done for others and the world remains and is immortal.
-Albert Pike

Wordy

Enjoy your eternal freefall.. you are forever beautiful!

My condoleances to the family.....

Love,
Ann...............

-Van

Jan gave really great hugs

Laugh on Jan,,,

Peanut4040

Blue Skies,
Alan Binnebose D17868

Flarehigher

I respect her heart. She was a gentile soul who was eager to help others. Her total lack of patience for bullshit is what gave her a rep as a tough person... but we all know she was a caring and wonderful woman.

I am heartbroken that she is gone, the world is less joyful place without her in it...

Blue Skies,

Ty Freiberg