About
Stephen John Downey, the son of Daniel and Mary (Smith) Downey, was born on January 26, 1898, in Utica, New York. Stephen came to Schenectady to work before enlisting in the Navy.
Stephen joined the US Navy the day before the war was declared. He was trained at the Newport Training School in Rhode Island. Stephan was a Seaman Second Class who made three voyages across the Atlantic and was on one ship that was torpedoed but escaped unharmed. Stephen was on board the USS Actaeon when it was torpedoed off the coast of Spain on November 24, 1917, and he died at sea. Because he was not usually assigned to that ship, his name was not reported immediately to others. Stephen is remembered at the Brookwood American Cemetery and Memorial, England.
Sources: The Schenectady Gazette, Find A Grave, Ancestry