Doris Eaton Travis, Doctor of Humanities
Doris Eaton Travis, received her honorary doctorate at Oakland University at the age of 100, had a long and distinguished career as a dancer, actress, business entrepreneur, rancher, author, and supporter of the performing arts and higher education. She was born in 1904 - 2010 and began performing at the age of 5 in local stock companies in Washington, D.C. At the age of fourteen she became the youngest performer in the Ziegfeld Follies, appearing over the years with such legendary stars as Will Rogers, Eddie Cantor, W.C. Fields, and Fannie Brice. With three sisters and two brothers appearing in the Follies in the years between 1918 and 1923, the Eaton’s became a well-known performing family during Broadway’s golden age.
During the Depression, when the curtain fell on the light entertainment industry, Doris made the transition from actress and dancer to dance teacher at the Arthur Murray Studios of Social Dance. She eventually went on to become owner of a chain of eighteen Arthur Murray dance studios in Michigan, which she operated for thirty years.
During the dance studio days, she married her dancing partner Paul Travis. After selling the dance studio business, Doris and Paul moved to Oklahoma and founded a horse ranch that was a center for horse breeding and racing. After Paul’s death, she continued to run the ranch, but now it is for boarding rather than breeding. She calls it the Travis Ranch Nursing Home for Horses.
Ms. Travis spent seven years writing her memoir, The Days We Danced, which was published by the University of Oklahoma Press in 2003. It provides a panoramic and uniquely personal view of the performing arts in America in the twentieth century. The author was a tireless signer of autographed copies at bookstores across the country. In 1992, at the age of eighty-eight, Ms. Travis became the oldest graduate of the University of Oklahoma. She was pursuing a master’s degree in liberal studies. Since the age of ninety-five, Ms. Travis danced annually on Broadway for various benefits such as the Phyllis Newman Women’s Health Initiative and the Broadway Cares Annual Easter Bonnet Competition, which raises money for AIDS-related causes.
Ms. Travis generously supported higher education through the Doris and Paul Travis Professor Program in the College of Arts and Sciences at Oakland University and through support of endowed chairs of medicine at the University of Oklahoma.
As to her longevity, Ms. Travis pointed out that she did not take any medication and dids not follow a special diet. Her exercise regimen consisted of walking around her house.
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