Getting to Know Our Neighbors: Doreen Downes
By Pat Hurleigh
This month Marilyn Holland and I paid a visit to Doreen Downes in Williston Park. Doreen was born in 1938 in NYC where her family lived for a few years. When Doreen was 3, her family including an older sister, Dawn, moved to Flushing. As a young teenager, Doreen and her friends would go the local ice cream parlor on weekends.
One weekend the group went to a different ice cream parlor. As they walked passed a group of boys, one of them stuck his foot out and tripped Doreen. She indignantly asked her friend who that boy was. She was told,” That’s just Willie Downes, the jerk”. Doreen knows it was her beautiful auburn hair that first attracted Bill. After that, her group and his group hung out together but it wasn’t until she was 18 that they started dating. They were married in1961 at St. Andrew’s Catholic Church in Flushing.
Doreen went to St. John’s University for her degree in education also studying French and upon graduation in1960 taught for 2 years in Williamsburg. After marrying Bill, they moved to an apartment in Mineola. In 1965 they got a call from a friend about a house for sale in Williston Park. The couple selling the house was childless and the house was treated as their child. It was in beautiful shape with a grand garden in back. Bill and Doreen fell in love with the house but neither of them were gardeners. The garden did not survive.
Doreen and Bill have 2 daughters, Patricia and Colleen, 4 granddaughters, 1 grandson, and a great-grandchild, all of whom live nearby. When Doreen’s daughters were young she was able to substitute teach in Mineola Public Schools at Cross Street and Meadow Drive. When the opportunity arose, she began teaching at the diocesan school, St. Agnes in Rockville Center where she taught 3rd grade for 27 years.
Doreen has always been very active in her church, St. Aidan’s. Years ago Doreen and Bill helped to form and run the Baptism committee for the parish. She was active in the Mothers’ Club at St. Aidan’s School when her daughters attended. She has been an active member of the Rosary Altar Society for 50 years participating in many of their committees and services and in 2019 was a recipient of the coveted Teapot Award for service and commitment.
When they were younger, Doreen and Bill loved to go on cruises with their friends. She reminisced about the trips to Alaska, the North Sea, the Baltic, but her favorites were the cruises taken on the Danube and the Rhine rivers. Her only regret is that they never got to Normandy.
Today Doreen spends much of her time reading and recommends the book Finding Margaret Fuller by Allison Pataki. She also loves author Victoria Thompson.
Doreen is grateful for her many wonderful years enjoying family and friends. She loves Williston Park and has contributed to the betterment of both St. Aidan’s and the village. They are years filled with fabulous memories of a life richly lived. And she feels especially blessed that she and Bill ended up in this beautiful community.
