Gerry Downes - Fanlore

Gerry Downes was an early Star Trek fanzine editor and publisher. In 1976, she published Alternative: The Epilog to Orion which is thought to be the first stand-alone K/S fanzine produced. She also wrote fan fiction and illustrated fanzines for others. She was the first recepient of the Trek Fan Fund, sponsored by the newsletter Halkan Council which raised money to pay for transportation and hotel fees to allow fans to attend conventions. She chose to go to Se*KWester*Con.

In her memorial editorial to Gerry after passed Jane of Australia wrote: "She was the lady who had the courage to look beyond friendship and see love, no matter that the two are both of the same gender. To look into the future and see a time when the personal problems we humans create for ourselves will have been set aside....Gerry's belief was that we will survive as a species. That faith is at the masthead of Star Trek, and echoes throughout the pages of her fanzines. Her writing has a liquid ease that beguiles; but look behind it and glimpse her vision of a future in which humanity survives, but not at the expense of individuals."^[1]

Another friend composed this memorial: " Writer, editor, publisher, artist. One of the breakthrough K/S writers, her "Epilogue to Orion" is a classic. Gerry lived way up in Alaska and didn't get "down" very often, but she was an enthusiastic letter writer. She entered fandom adamantly against the idea of K/S, yet quickly changed her mind and became one of its biggest supporters. And not only did she write, and write extremely well, but she could illustrate her own and others' stories. A true Renaissance woman. Cancer took her from us way too early."^[2]

1. ↑ Editorial Waffle to the 2001 republication of Alternative: The Epilog to Orion, via Wayback. (Accessed 25 December 2009)
2. ↑ Nancy Kippax. Farewell, Dear Fen: In Memorium, 14 July 2008. (Accessed 25 December 2009)