It’s with great sadness that we report the death of one of cabaret’s staunchest supporters, and beloved husband of KT Sullivan, Stephen Downey. We reprint the announcement from The Mabel Mercer Foundation, of which Sullivan is Artistic Director, announcing his passing.
SPOTLIGHT Weekly Newsletter by the Mabel Mercer Foundation: Passing Tribute
Stephen Downey: November 10, 1937 – December 7, 2021
It is with deep love that we morn the loss Steven Miner Downey, who passed away peacefully at his home in Charlottesville Virginia in the early morning of December 7th with his son Jim and wife KT Sullivan by his side.
Steve was that rare combination of athletic and poetic. He was the captain of Hamilton College’s football team, which was undefeated in 1959, but he was equally proud of being President of both The Yeats International Theatre Festival and the New York Browning Society.
A long career in public relations and speechwriting (for both the Clinton and Carter campaigns) took him from working for Taodoro Moscoso in Puerto Rico to Brown-Forman in Louisville Kentucky. In 2000 he produced the off-broadway production of American Rhapsody which starred his wife, KT Sullivan, and Mark Nadler.
After countless shows in which his wife co-starred with Jeff Harnar at the Laurie Beechman Theatre, Steve and KT often held soirées in their Manhattan Plaza apartment. Many will remember Steve as a dashing and congenial host.
* * * * * * * * * * *
“I Remember You”
Johnny Mercer
I remember you
You’re the one who made my dreams come true
A few kisses ago
I remember you
You’re the one who said “I love you, too”
I do, didn’t you know?
I remember, too, a distant bell and stars that fell
Like the rain out of the blue
When my life is through
And the angels ask me to recall
The thrill of them all
Then I shall tell them I remember you
There’s a diligent faith in Steve, a fortitude that lets others be themselves but confident in their hearts, their aptitudes. Allowing for their stumbles, that the uncertainties and blunders aren’t disqualifying but formative. A man late in life who is youthened by anticipation of all the good, all the giving, they will realize in their own voices, their own paths, their own time. A protector of and, in his way, elder student on the subject of the young.
One wonders who showed Steve the wisdom of this nourishing cycle, a teacher or parent or mentor? What’s never in question is that it summons in him all that is as expansive as a pub on a Sunday, as lyrical as his dear Browning, and as protective as a private word away from the crowd. If he tells me that some city is a great town, some woman a great gal, that the best is yet to be, I’m delighted to believe him. It feels collegial, somehow as if you’re joined shoulder to shoulder on a team. We’re in this together, his unspoken always seems to say, and won’t we all be bettered by it?
But it also took actions only he could do. To hear him smoothly and surely introduce a neophyte around to the influential was to witness an elder statesman at a Georgetown cocktail party. To see him, in an audience, clench a fist in solidarity and wink and silently cheer you to victory was like being spurred on to seize the championship with seconds on the clock. It never failed to work a bit of magic. Even if you didn’t see what he saw, you’d hate to spurn that quiet solidarity. It felt wrong, was wrong, and you gave the moment what you had.
His faith and love, his cycle, are now being returned to him in kind.
Eric Yves Garcia
(November 18, 2021)
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