Butler family tries to rebuild after motorcycle death
Butler native Roger “R.J.” Davis’ 10-day fight for life ended on Wednesday, Sept. 25, when he died of injuries he sustained in a motorcycle accident in Leechburg on Sunday, Sept. 15.
According to Davis’ sister, Olivia, Davis was placed on numerous life support machines at UPMC Presbyterian Hospital in Pittsburgh to keep him alive before he ultimately succumbed.
“He was kind, free-living, wild and funny,” Olivia said. “He was the friend that when you didn’t see him for a while and he walked into a room, that person smiled.”
Davis was employed as an iron worker at the time of his death, and his fiancée, Mary Jane, was pregnant with their child, a baby boy named Bennett. Bennett was born prematurely on Sept. 20, five days before his father’s death.
“We are okay,” Olivia said. “We are hanging in there.”
A benefit dinner has been set up by Roger’s distant family to raise money to support Mary Jane and Bennett after Roger’s death. The benefit dinner is scheduled for Sunday, Oct. 6 at the Natrona Heights VFW from noon to 5 p.m. The cost of entry is $20 per person or $30 per couple, but the organizers will accept baby diapers for Mary in lieu of an entry fee.
In addition, a “celebration of life” potluck is scheduled for Friday, Oct. 4 at 7:30 p.m. at the Sons and Daughters of Italy lodge on South Main Street in Butler.
According to the flyer for the benefit dinner, Roger was an organ donor at the time of his death.
His obituary appears in Sunday’s Butler Eagle.
