Passion & Purpose: Summer 2024
Planned gifts by two women will forever support Branson-area causes
Decisions made today can have a lasting impact far into the future, a reality that’s reminded through two women who gave of their time during life and made plans to keep being forces for good after their deaths.
Those women are Pat Davis and Margie King Berry. They shared similarities — both spent time in Texas, neither was originally from the Ozarks, they both lived in the Branson area, and both had a passion for children — and after their individual passings, their work continues due to the decisions they made.
Davis and Berry didn’t know the legacies their lives would continue when they came to Branson. But looking forward, it’s easy to see the impact they had — and will continue to make. Here are their stories.
Pat Davis
It wasn’t until later in her life when Pat Davis moved to the Ozarks with her husband, Ransom, around 2000. The Davises were drawn to the Branson area, where they had spent time trout fishing and relaxing, and decided to make the area their home.
Pat transferred her career in the travel industry to southwest Missouri, and brought her care and compassion, too.
“She was just so outgoing and boisterous and fun — always fun,” says Linda Adkins, a longtime friend. “She loved to cook; she used to do catering years ago. She was always upbeat and cheery, and they always liked to work with children, I think because they couldn’t have any.”
In the Branson area, those passions translated to work in the community. Pat helped establish a thrift store to help support the Branson Christian Church where the couple attended. She also volunteered, Adkins says, to run a local food pantry.
Even though she was the one doing the work, it was a team effort for the Davises.
“When she first started volunteering like that, (Ransom) said, ‘You go volunteer,” Adkins says. “He did all the cooking, and grocery shopping and laundry, and always had dinner on the table when she got home. They were a team when they were doing that.”
Pat Davis's planned gift continues the passion she held for the Taney County community.
Other causes and organizations include the Boys & Girls Club of the Ozarks; the Red Cross; the Salvation Army, and animals — the latter supported by the love of her Scottie dogs. Those pups were her passion; she always had the black one, and the white one, Adkins says.
“I’d have to go back and count all the different ones they had, but those were her babies,” Adkins says of the beloved companions.
Ransom Davis died in 2015, and Pat passed away in 2022. Their legacies, however, live on through the Pat and Ransom Davis Charitable Fund, which was established in 2014 to extend support to causes couple felt passionate about.
To date, the Davis Charitable Fund has supported a few key buckets of causes and organizations: The Boys & Girls Club of the Ozarks and scholarships for students through the OTC Foundation, support of health care for low-income neighbors through Faith Community Health Center Inc., and the Branson Humane Society.
There’s also Christian Action Ministries, tying back to the place where Davis worked as a volunteer food bank leader because she wanted to serve.
“I think she would want to be remembered for both of them — they were a team when they decided to do this charitable fund,” Adkins says. “They set that up together.”
Margie King Berry
Margie King Berry’s ties to the Branson area are also rooted in service and go back to young adulthood, when she moved to Forsyth with her family. Her mother, the late Dr. Mary King Long, was a physician who founded a nursing home in the Taney County seat.
“She saw the families that had no money to pay with, no electricity, etc.,” says Mary Katherine Westgate, Berry’s daughter. “She helped deliver many babies in my grandma’s office in the lower level of the old nursing home.”
That early exposure to health care and the Ozarks made a lasting impression. Berry became a nurse and worked in various leadership roles in posts in Kansas City and Texas. She ultimately returned to Forsyth later in her life, where she was instrumental in helping found the Forsyth Community Foundation, an affiliate of the CFO that today has become the Community Foundation of Taney County. She also served on the CFO’s board of directors.
“I think growing up in the area, she saw firsthand the severe need and wanted to make it better,” Westgate says. “To do what she could to make a difference in their lives.”
Margie King Berry's lasting impact can be felt today in programs helping the youth of Taney County.
That passion led to the establishment of the James and Margie King Berry Fund for Taney County Youth. Today, it’s held by the Community Foundation of Taney County.
“I really don’t think how she’d care about being remembered as much as just knowing that kids would have a safe place to go after school to get a snack and help on homework, and be cared for,” her daughter shares. “She wanted to make it easier and better for young families.”
Lasting impact for beloved nonprofit
Davis and Berry’s similarities continued after their passings through their shared focus on children and youth. Among other outlets, both women found a focus for their philanthropy through Boys & Girls Club of the Ozarks.
Berry was instrumental in raising capital funding to construct the club’s Forsyth unit; her CFO designated fund still provides support to B&GC today. Davis, too, funneled passion-to-philanthropy through her CFO fund, which today supports academic support programs like “Power Hour,” a tutoring/homework help program for hundreds of kids.
Planned gifts by Pat Davis and Margie King Berry benefit Boys & Girls Club of the Ozarks, which serves youth in Taney and Stone counties, along with other nonprofits in the area.
“Boys & Girls Club of the Ozarks is forever indebted to folks like Pat and Margie who have led the way for local business and individuals to get involved,” says Stoney Hays, CEO of BGCO. “Simply put, we would not exist without generous supporters in the community. Their investments encouraged other donors to get involved and rally around working parents and the future of their school-age children.”
Those efforts are part of creating a lasting picture the CFO can help facilitate.
“Leaving a legacy through planned giving is a profound way to ensure that one’s values and passions continue to make a positive impact for generations to come,” says Ashley Silva, vice president of development at the CFO. “It allows individuals to support causes they care deeply about while still providing for loved ones, creating a balanced and meaningful legacy.
“This thoughtful approach to philanthropy provides a sense of fulfillment to the donor, knowing that their contributions will help shape a better future.”
By Kaitlyn McConnell · This essay is featured in the summer 2024 edition of Passion & Purpose: The CFO Magazine.
