By SYDNEY STEVENS For the Chinook Observer August 8th, 2024

Helen Nancy Matson Davis (1905-1992)

When “Washington, My Home” by Helen Davis of South Bend, was first proposed as the State’s official song in the late 1950s, there were snide remarks and whispered put-downs by the “Big City Boys” in Olympia’s hallowed halls. “Wrong address” they said of Helen. “Written by a woman” (worse yet), they said.

Composer Davis was unphased. She was proud of her home town roots. She knew who she was and she knew what she believed in. The bigwigs in Olympia didn’t realize it at first, but “Washington My Home” was a shoe-in.

Helen Davis was born Helen Nancy Matson in Zanesville, Ohio, in November 1905. But by the time she was three — before she had acquired many memories of the town of her forebears — her parents were on the move west. Helen did remember, however, that there was always music in her home. Her parents had an abiding love for music and education and encouraged their children to excel in both.

Until she was 18, Helen lived in Denver, Colorado, where she studied with a teacher with the improbable name of Helen Nancy Matson though no one thought of the identical names as an omen, at least not then! From the beginning little Helen was composing melodies which she enjoyed performing for family and friends — the first one called “The Geranium Waltz.”

As soon as she was old enough, she enrolled at Bellingham Normal School as a music major. Though she only had money enough to complete a year and a half of course work, a much more important event occurred during that brief introduction to college life! She met and soon married education major Chauncy Davis. As Chauncey followed his career path from one small town to another, eventually becoming Superintendent of the South Bend School District, Helen was a “stay-at-home-mom,” busy raising two sons and keeping house for the family.

But there was always time for music — whether it was accompanying local vocalists or helping with high school musical productions, music was as much a part of Helen Davis as was her cheerful outlook on life and enjoyment of all the activities that her small home-towns had to offer. Whenever possible she performed solo for civic groups or helped her husband organize school musical performances. She also played the piano at the local Methodist churches.

Her life did change, however, in the 1940s when a local outbreak of tuberculosis got her involved in the national campaign to eradicate it. It was the first time Helen actually worked at a job outside her home — a job which led to the development of the Pacific County Health Department. However, it was her work with the South Bend Beautification Committee and with teenagers which gave her the greatest satisfaction.

The appropriate challenge came her way in 1949 when she was enlisted to write the music for an operetta about the early years of Washington’s logging industry. The operetta became a musical called “Eliza and the Lumberjack” and was produced in dozens of Northwest communities. It is often referred to as the Northwest musical equivalent of “Oklahoma.”

When Helen changed the title of her own 1951 centennial tribute, “America My Home” to “Washington My Home,” it wasn’t long before civic clubs across the State were opening their meetings with it and the Washington State Federation of Music Clubs adopted it as their official song. When state politicians made it the official state song in March 1959, Helen’s days as a “simple housewife” were but a memory.

Though her family continued to be the focal point of her life, but her business ventures, community work, and musical career demanded her attention, as well. However, Helen never lost site of the fact that fame and fortune did not smile on her by accident; she’d had to work hard for them.

The memory of that attempted slur by the big city boys in the late 1950s only made Helen chuckle.. Whereas her critics had long retired from positions of power and were all but forgotten, Helen remained a community leader in South Bend throughout her life. Her song continues to be heard across the State. She was always too gracious to admit it, but she was certainly given the last laugh.

In her 2006 Chinook Observer article about Helen and Chauncey Davis, the late Adelle Redfern Beechey wrote of Helen: “When she got started, she was a human dynamo! She had so much enthusiasm, vitality and talent, she became a Long Beach icon.” ADELLE BEECHEY photo