CARMEN LUJAN DAVIDSON, 60, a lifelong resident of Las Cruces passed away on Saturday, February 1, 2025. Carmen was born on July 1, 1964, to Alfredo and Esther Lujan. She was raised surrounded by the love, and the occasional roughhousing, of three older brothers, Fred, Miguel, and Rene, and two older sisters, Christina, and Rosemary.

She was a proud graduate of Las Cruces High School, where she was a champion of speech and debate, and spoke with such fondness of her days in the LCHS theater community. She attended New Mexico State University on Readers Theater scholarships and earned her Bachelors and Master of Business Administration.

She met her husband and love of her life, Dean in 1987, introduced by her brother Rene. They married on February 17, 1990, and should have been celebrating 35 years together this week. They were each other's best friend. They were steady and thoughtful in the way they cared for each other. They enjoyed years of neighborhood walks with their shih tzu Sookie, travelling in and out of New Mexico, and many re-watches of Seinfeld, The West Wing, and Downton Abbey. Together they raised two daughters, Elena, and Elisa.

Carmen loved books, and she made sure her daughters did too. They spent many days reading together: picture books, then American Girl Mysteries, then Harry Potter, and most recently their Book of the Month membership. She shared a love for poetry with her daughters, she loved Neruda and Cummings and shared her favorites with them.

Carmen loved musical theater. She loved plays at the Las Cruces Community and Black Box Theaters, and she loved Broadway shows - a love she passed on to her daughters, and a love her husband grew to share as well. They traveled to Los Angeles to see The Lion King, San Antonio to see Wicked, Las Vegas to see Hamilton, and for her 55th birthday the family traveled to New York to see 3 plays in 2 days.

Carmen loved to knit. Her family lovingly nicknamed her "Knitsy McGee" and her handmade shawls, socks, and hats were always the best gifts at Christmas time. She accumulated skeins upon skeins of yarn and loved to share the story behind each one - the background of the dyer, where the wool came from, and the name of the colorway. She loved to hold her yarn and look at her yarn and sort her yarn, almost as much as she loved to knit with it. She loved her community of knitters and made friends online and in person at Fiber Arts Festivals - locally and coast to coast. Family trips often included her excitedly sharing that cities had "a great little yarn shop" that she would always leave with bags of treasures and plans for her next project.

Carmen loved her family. She said that growing up with older brothers made her tough. She took care of her parents and loved them fiercely. She loved her nieces and nephews, and she adored all of the "little ones."

But most of all, Carmen loved being a mom. In the past year, she often recounted how much she loved the busy-ness of the Thursday afternoon piano lessons, theater rehearsals on Tuesdays and Thursdays, violin lessons on Friday, and Saturdays filled with 4-H projects. She coached public speaking and taught knitting through the Dona Ana County 4-H program. She attended The National 4-H Conference where both daughters competed in public speaking, as their coach, but more importantly as a mom who was proud of her girls. But she often told her daughters words her favorite president, Jed Bartlett from The West Wing series, shared with his daughter: "The only thing you ever have to do to make me happy is, come home at the end of the day."

She is survived by her loving husband of thirty-five years, Dean Davidson; her daughters, Elena Davidson-Shamoon and John Shamoon of Mountain View, CA and Elisa Davidson and Jack Schlater of Albuquerque, NM; her mother Esther Lujan of Las Cruces, NM; her brothers, Alfredo and Cynthia Lujan of Clovis, NM, and Rene and Mary Lujan of Las Cruces, NM; her sister, Christina Aceves of El Paso, TX; her sister-in-law, Dora Lujan of Portales, NM; her mother-in-law, Evelyn Davidson of Las Cruces, NM; her brother-in-law, Jon Davidson and Megan Reece of Las Cruces, NM; her nieces and nephews, Alfredo and Janice, Miguel, Tomas, Christopher and Iris, Hannah and Jason, Lisa and Shawn, Rebecca and Ray, Anthony and Kayla, Mia, Joseph, Derek, and Kathrine; and numerous aunts, uncles, cousins, and friends. She was preceded in death by her father Alfredo Lujan; her brother, Miguel Lujan; her sister, Rosemary Garcia; her father-in-law, Alvin Davidson; and her sister-in-law, Karin Davidson.

A private memorial service has already taken place.

The family would like to thank all the friends, family, and loved ones who helped during this time.

Service arrangements have been entrusted to the care of Baca's Funeral Chapel of Las Cruces and Sunset Crematory, 300 E. Boutz Road, 527-2222. Your exclusive provider for "Veterans and Family Memorial Care." For online condolences logon to www.bacasfuneralchapelslascruces.com