Debra Jo Davey
MESA – Debra Jo Davey of Mesa, AZ passed away peacefully at home on July 22, 2018 at age 65. She was preceded in death by her parents, Paul Richard
Sheeley Sr. and Thelda Jo Sheeley, and younger brother Paul Richard Sheeley, Jr. She is survived by her husband, Jeffrey James Davey, son Matthew
James Gunby III (Stephanie Jo Gunby), daughter
Rebecca Jo Fisher (Nathan Fisher), and their 2 daughters, Penelope Jo, age 3, and Charlotte Jo, age 8 weeks.
Debbie was born on January 29, 1953 in Los Angeles, California. Debbie lived her younger years in Antelope Valley, which she considered her hometown. At Palmdale High School, she excelled at playing the piano, was a mathlete, a star tennis player, and loved working as a lifeguard at the local pool.
In 1971, Debbie moved to Tempe to attend Arizona State University. She would forever after call the Valley of the Sun her home.
Debbie devoted her life to teaching. After graduating from Arizona State University with a bachelor’s degree in Music Education and Piano Performance, she married Jim Gunby and settled in Mesa, Arizona to welcome Matt & Becky Jo into the world. Her first teaching job was Choral Director at Longview School. This is where Debbie’s passion for teaching and music thrived. She taught her students not just to have a love of music, but inspired many to follow in her footsteps and become teachers and music professionals themselves. One of Debra Jo’s favorite things in life was attending music camps at Northern Arizona University and Camp Pacific in Carlsbad, California, with little Matt and Becky Jo in tow, often using her suitcase as a makeshift crib for her babies.
After nine years teaching at Longview, Debbie became the Choral Director at Rhodes Junior High. She built up the choral department to four individual choirs and produced many very successful musicals. Rhodes earned countless awards and accolades in the many choral competitions under her guidance, even against high schools, and she was often called upon as an expert in her field to work with other choirs in workshops and master classes around the country. The sound she was able to produce from a group of public school teenagers could only be truly appreciated by those lucky enough to have heard them.
In 1998 Debbie took on the community theater world, and during her first gig she met Jeffrey Davey, whom she married in 2000. They enjoyed many years of performing theater together, singing in various choirs, traveling to faraway places, and making a beautiful home at ‘Chez Davey’, their lakeside home in Mesa with their beagle dogs and cats. She enjoyed hosting many cast parties and other fun events there with Jeffrey.
Debra Jo went on to complete her Doctor of Musical Arts degree, also from Arizona State University. (Go Devils!) She received multiple ariZoni Theater Awards of Excellence awards (Valley-area equivalent to the “Tony Awards”), and served as Artistic Director to Mesa Encore Theatre for many years. However, for all of her shows, she always included in her bio that her favorite ‘productions’ were Matt & Becky Jo.
Debra Jo touched so many lives, inspired so many hearts, and filled so many venues with her love of music. Her legacy still rings from the school rafters where she started programs, in the camps and organizations she fostered, and can be heard in the voices of performers who command the stage all the way to Broadway and beyond.
A Memorial Service will be held Saturday, August 25, 2 p.m. at Rhodes Jr. High School Auditorium, 1860 South Longmore, Mesa 85202, to be followed at 3:30 p.m. by a Celebration of Life “Cast Party” at Macayo’s Depot Cantina, 300 S. Ash, Tempe 85281. All are welcome at both gatherings.
In lieu of flowers, please make donations to either: Mesa Encore Theatre’s Scholarship Fund (for graduating seniors entering college to study the performing arts) – https://www.paypal.me/MesaEncoreTheatre or Arizona Community Church, Tempe – https://www.azccorg/give
Shine on, Debbie. The light you shared with this world is reflected in the multitude of people you touched.