August 12, 1955 – September 23, 2022

David Ewing, whose richly varied career showcased his talent as an entertainer, as a travel agent for celebrities, and a hotel manager and auditor, died of heart disease September 23,2022, at Okeechobee, Fla. He was 67.

David was born August 12, 1955, in Atlanta, Ga., to Charles G. Ewing, an Army officer from Powell Station, Tenn., and Helen Burns Ewing of Savannah. Ga.

David moved with his family to Baltimore, Md., then to West Berlin, where he lived from 1959 to 1962, before settling in Fairfax, Va. He graduated from Robinson Secondary School, where he showed early talent for sketching, painting, acting, singing and dancing. This experience and his lifelong love of the theatre led to a successful run of professional appearances in many stage plays and musicals, including “Fiddler on the Roof,” in which he danced the crowd-pleasing bottle dance, “Brigadoon,” where he won acclaim for his spirited performance of the saber dance, “Man of La Mancha” and many others. He appeared in a wide range of community and dinner theatres from the Washington, D.C., area to Atlanta.

His passion for performing led him to New York City, where he and his brother Charlie Ewing wrote, produced and starred in an original performance, “The Kelly and Burns Show,” in which they played two aging vaudevillians who evoked fond memories with a medley of Broadway hits at The Duplex, a prominent venue in the West Village.

During his years in New York, David worked as an optical technician, travel agent and as a manager and auditor at major hotels, which brought him in contact with a number of celebrities who enjoyed his friendship during their stays and contributed to his prized collection of autographs.

After he suffered a heart attack aboard an airliner, the plane landed and he was rushed to an emergency room for treatment. While he survived that experience, he decided to move to a place where the pace was less hectic than Manhattan, and went to work at the historic Hilltop House Hotel in Harper’s Ferry, W.Va. As his hospitality career advanced, David worked at top hotels in San Francisco and Nashville, where he lived for several years, making friends and collecting autographs and photos of country music stars.

In recent years, David lived in Orlando and Okeechobee, Fl. He was sharing a home with his brother Charlie, when he was suddenly stricken and died in a local hospital.

David is survived by his brothers Charles G. Ewing, Jr., of Okeechobee, Laurence Lee (Dottie) Ewing of Winnabow, N.C ., and Gerald H. (Suzanne) Ewing of Orlando, who died three weeks later on October 10, 2022. David was preceded in death by his parents and his sister, Margaret Mary Ewing.

Details on the time and place of a memorial service are pending.
For more photos of and images by David, please visit his gallery here.