Obituary of Jean McLean Davis

On Thursday evening, August 16, 2012, legendary Kentucky horsewoman, Jean McLean Davis passed away at her home in Harrodsburg, KY. Mrs. Davis was born in Portsmouth, VA on May 2, 1929. She was the daughter of development magnate, George Tutton McLean and Amelia Gatti McLean. Mrs. Davis graduated from Woodrow Wilson High School. She attended Sweetbriar College and the College of William and Mary. In 1949, she married attorney and Marine Lt. Colonel Richard J. Davis, Jr., also of Portsmouth. They had one child, a daughter, Jamie. Mrs. Davis was world renowned for owning, showing and breeding American Saddlebred horses. Her love of horses all started with a spotted pony given to her as a gift by her father, and continued for a lifetime. With close to 200 World Championship titles with her horses, she was a legend in the horse world, both in and out of the saddle. In 1964, she moved to Kentucky to start her renowned Oak Hill Farm in Harrodsburg, KY. Being in the midst of horse country had always been her dream, and she built a showing and breeding empire in the same way she lived her life, with grace and dignity. She was a master of bloodlines and the athletic movement of horses, using that knowledge extensively in her breeding program. Mrs. Davis has received many awards over the years: The ASHA Breeder of the Year, the ASHA Lifetime Achievement Award, the Audrey Guttridge Award at the Kentucky State Fair World’s Championship Horse Show, Induction into the World’s Championship Hall of Fame and the first woman inductee to the Virginia Sports Hall of Fame. There is a display dedicated to her at the American Saddlebred Museum at the Kentucky Horse Park and the Virginia Sports Hall of Fame. [Continued]