Betsy Warren-Davis

Betsy Warren-Davis, 95
BATH - Betsy Warren-Davis (Classical Composer B. Warren), 96, resident of Bath, passed away on March 3, 2018, peacefully at her son's home in Arrowsic surrounded by her family. Betsy was born in Boston in 1921, the only child of Paul Livingston Warren, an actor and Edith (Frost) Warren an opera singer. Before her birth, Betsy's parents toured early 20th century America as the Vaudeville duo "Warren and Frost".
Composing under the name B. Warren she authored over 120 works of modern classical music including four operas, three symphonies, chamber works for strings, woodwinds, piano and organ, and numerous choral works drawing on her earlier career as a singer, choral director and teacher of music theory. A lifelong follower of the Christian Science religion, Betsy dedicated many or her compositions to the Glory of God.
As a child, Betsy was raised by her mother and grandfather, James Riggs Frost, a Bath native and pioneer in the Maine shoe industry with Thomas G. Plant. Her father tragically passed away when Betsy was very young. The family moved to Skowhegan, where she immersed herself in music and the arts at the town high school making arrangements for a contemporary singing trio that she led. Upon graduating in 1938, she joined the Lakewood Summer Theatre where she was cast in "Good Morning" with John Hammond Daly and also in "Land of Honey" with Warren Hymer and Keenan Wynn. Her early exposure to Broadway-bound shows performing in the golden age of summer stock was a profound influence that gave her a theatrical sensibility that she brought to her later performances and operatic compositions. Her mother taught her to sing and act but also recognized and encouraged Betsy's early talent as a composer and arranger.
Beginning in 1938 she began her undergraduate studies at the University of Maine to study Astronomy. In her Junior year, she transferred to Radcliffe College, switched disciplines and received a BA in Music in 1942. The following year she condensed a two-year master's degree into nine months graduating with an MA in music from Harvard in 1943 studying composition with her mentor Walter Piston and also with Aaron Copeland and Nadia Boulanger. During the 1950s and 60s she taught music theory at the New England Conservatory, sang with opera companies in Boston and New York and embarked on solo singing tour of Europe.
In 1947 she met and married Joseph Henry Davis Jr., a Navy veteran of the Pacific Campaign of WW2, graduate of the Harvard Business School and future entrepreneur in the electronics industry. Betsy and Joe loved the Bath area, were trustees of the Maine Maritime Museum in the 1980s and were avid boaters in the tidal estuaries of the Kennebec. She wrote many of her compositions surrounded by nature on Arrowsic and from a remote camp in Westport overlooking Hockomock Bay.
Together with her husband she formed the Wiscasset Music Publishing Company which continues to operate. She also developed a music listening course for schools with her friend and Radcliffe classmate Susan Godoy.
Proud of her New England Heritage, she belonged to many historical associations including the Colonial Dames of America, The Society of the Descendants of the Colonial Clergy, The National Huguenot Society and the Daughters of the American Revolution.
She leaves a son, James Frost Davis, a daughter, Catherine Eaton Davis; and three grandchildren, David, George and Josephine Massey.
A memorial service will be held in Boston Mass. on Sunday, June 10, at 3 p.m. in at the Class of 1959 Chapel at the Harvard Business School on Gordon Road, Boston, Mass. For further details, contact wiscassetmusicpublishing@yahoo.com.
A series of memorial concerts featuring her compositions is being planned.