The invention contained herein provides electrical circuits and driving methods to operate a memory cell comprising a capacitance coupled to a breakover conduction switch such as a thyristor, DIAC or one or more complementary transistor pairs. The memory cell comprises a cell capacitance for storing a memory state and for capacitively coupling an applied voltage to the switch. During operation, pulses are applied to write, read or maintain the cell's memory state. An illumination cell comprises an LED, OLED or electroluminescent material in series with each memory cell. Breakover conduction charge passes through the switch and the emissive element to charge the cell capacitance. A memory array of breakover conduction memory cells may be organized into rows and columns for reading and writing an addressable array memory cells. An organic light emitting display memory array may be fabricated using organic light emitting devices and/or materials.