Gloria Quirk Downs-Bauer

Gloria Quirk Downs-Bauer seated atop a cannon or other heavy artillery gun at Veterans' Triangle Park on the corner of River Street and Church Street. [Historic Saranac Lake Collection, 2022.83.344. Gift of Ann Pecora Diamond.]

Born: May 3, 1931, Rainbow Lake, NY

Died:  October 26, 2009

Married: Herman Downs, Russ Bauer

Children: Elaine Cave, Karen Boyer, Nancy Borden, Bill Downs, Mike Downs, Steve Downs, Cindy Downs, and A.J. Allen

Gloria Quirk Downs-Bauer was a longtime resident of Saranac Lake, her family having moved to a house on Dorsey Street from Rainbow Lake when she was 8 years old. 

The photograph on the right was donated to Historic Saranac Lake without any knowledge of who was depicted in it. Historic Saranac Lake published the photograph in the Adirondack Daily Enterprise as the inaugural photograph of its "5 Ws Wednesday" series, in which the museum shares unidentified photographs from its collection to see if anyone can answer the who, what, where, when, or why of the photograph. The museum received many responses to the photograph, including two from family members of Gloria Downs-Bauer, who identified her in the photograph shown. Gloria's daughter, Nancy Borden, said that her mother was at oldest 17 in the photograph and shared her mother's biographical information with the museum.