Esther Elizabeth [Kubishta] Davis (b. 1937) Esther Elizabeth Kubishta was born on March 28, 1937 in Dickinson, ND to parents Joseph and Elizabeth (Dassinger).  She was one of five children including Alfred; Rose (Raab); Helen (Meduna); and youngest brother Ed.  While much time was devoted to farm chores and schoolwork, activities also included ice skating on the river, riding horseback, skiing behind the horse, and neighborhood get togethers butchering meat for the following winter.  Esther and her siblings played tag, hide & seek, kick the can.  "Family time" was spent playing cards and Chinese checkers. They had the first TV in the area, so neighbors came over to watch Friday night wrestling then play cards. Sundays were for church and getting together for big noon-time dinners with relatives. Occasionally they would stay "in town" after church and see a movie or go to a visiting carnival. Her father played cards with the men and her mother joined the the women to socialize at the German-Hungarian Hall. While Esther graduated from Dickinson Central High School in 1955, she spent the last 3 months at North Dakota's tuberculosis sanitarium at San Haven.  She had tested positive for tuberculosis (TB) in her senior year.  Fortunately, she was retested shortly after her arrival and concluded she did not have the disease.  Infected patients were commonly isolated from the rest of the population; expected to live out their lives in sanitariums until new drugs provided new treatment options.  Esther credits this experience as making her an optimist giving her "the insight and optimism to grab life by the horns and go for everything life had to offer!"   Now free, she attended Dickinson Teachers College (now Dickinson State University) on a "rural scholarship."  Under that program, students attended classes one year and agreed to teach rural school for at least one year in exchange for $300.  She supplemented her scholarship by working at the JC Penney department store.  She taught for 2 years at the rural school she attended as a child.  (The actual school building is now part of The Prairie Outpost Village adjacent to the Joachim Regional Museum in Dickinson.)  Upon saving enough money to return to Dickinson State for another year, she graduated in 1958 with an associate degree in teaching.  She was the local TV personality hosting nationally syndicated children’s TV show "Romper Room" plus working at a high-end ladies ready-to-wear clothing store "Vanity Shop" and continued her career in mass media and retail rather than teaching. Esther married Barry Davis in 1960.  Barry was from Toronto, Canada and came to Dickinson with a trio who played at the very elegant, Esquire Club.  When his fellow band members moved on, he stayed in Dickinson and played at the piano bar for 2 years.  Leo Guon of Mandan's Havana Club convinced Barry to move the family to Mandan in 1962, playing at his nightclub and as part of a musical trio at Jerry’s Supper Club.  Esther supplemented the family's income by selling Avon products door to door.  She enjoyed the job and excelled at it; winning multiple sales awards.  They bought their first home in 1963 on Third Avenue.  Esther and Barry had three children; daughter Nancy Elizabeth (Langford) and sons Bob and Doug Davis. Photo Courtesy of Esther Davis Havana Club, a basement nightclub for years, staged the location to close many political, business (legal and maybe otherwise) deals.   After the Havana Club closed in the summer of 1964 due to financial problems, the Davises bought it, remodeled it, developed a new theme and renamed it "The Seven Seas."  The hottest item on their menu was the South American steak, spiced with a sauce provided by a Los Angeles company that eventually went out of business.  Faced with the prospect of missing a key ingredient to the top menu item, Esther replicated the flavor of the original sauce. “We got the list of ingredients off the label,” said Davis. “For six weeks, we spent every Saturday in a kitchen mixing things together, changing proportions, trying to get the flavor just right.” Essie's South American Sauce, described as part barbecue, part teriyaki, and part Cajun, followed Davis after the Havana Club was destroyed by fire in 1970. The couple opened the Seven Seas Motor Inn, Restaurant and Lounge. Customers, hooked on the flavor of the sauce, followed.  Patrons would occassionally bring their own jars to pack for home samples of the sauce.  Persuaded by the practice and numerous sauce-related compliments, in the fall of 1985, Davis introduced the product commercially. Essie’s South American-Style Sauce was described in a January 1988 Field and Stream Magazine article as “the best prepared sauce [the author] had ever tasted.”  Today the sauce is distributed regionally and available nationwide by mail order. She retired from her job in 2005 as a worldwide sales manager for Best Western International, Inc. – a position she held for 14 years – and took a more active role in the marketing of the sauce. She has turned the day-to-day operation to her daughter but remains involved in business even in her retirement.  She maintains a large yard and garden focusing on raising roses and various perennials.  She travels world-wide, including destinations in all 50 states, Canada, Europe, South America, Central America, and southeast Asia and Africa.  She is a member of both a book club and a walking club. From her current residence in Seattle, WA, she also assists with the AARP Fraud Prevention Program to help seniors avoid scams and frauduant investments.