In Memoriam

Ann Davis Wager
1935-2025

COOPERSTOWN—Long-time Cooperstown resident Ann Davis Wager died on March 18, 2025 in a care facility in Pasadena, California from complications of dementia.

Ann Davis was born on February 5, 1935 in Nanticoke, Pennsylvania to Frederick Donald Davis and Gertrude (Flowers) Davis. Her father’s work in poultry management and research took the family around the country. Ann graduated high school in Birmingham, Alabama in 1953, and attended Alabama Junior College for Women for one year. When her family moved to San Luis Obispo, California, she transferred to the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB), from which she graduated with a BA in art in 1957.

She was preceded in death by her husband of 60 years, Walter John Wager Jr., who died on November 27, 2017 at Focus Rehabilitation and Nursing Center in Cooperstown after years of living with dementia. Walter was born January 21, 1933 in Denver, Colorado to Walter John Wager Sr. and Rhea (Saxton) Wager. The family moved to Oxnard, California in 1942, and Walter graduated from Oxnard High School in 1951. He entered the U.S. Army and was stationed at Fort Dix, New Jersey. Upon his release, Walter enrolled at Ventura Junior College, where he studied English literature. In 1955, he transferred to UCSB, where he and Ann met; they were married at the Santa Barbara City Hall in 1957.

The couple moved to Long Beach, California in 1959, where Walter continued his education at Long Beach City College, and where their first son, Patrick, was born in 1961. The family then moved to Los Angeles, where Walter entered the English literature PhD program at UCLA. The couple’s younger son, Timothy, was born there in 1965. Upon Walter’s graduation from UCLA, he was hired at SUNY Oneonta, and the family moved there in 1969. Walter taught for more than 20 years at SUNY Oneonta, specializing in classes on 19th and 20th century British literature. Favorite courses of his to teach were Poetry of World War I, Romantic Poetry, and the Modern Novel. Walter enjoyed coaching little league baseball and was active in supporting his sons’ participation in baseball, cross-country skiing, and soccer.

In 1970, the family moved to Cooperstown, where Ann enrolled in the inaugural class of the Art Conservation Department of SUNY Oneonta, then located in what are now the facilities of the Cooperstown Graduate Program. (The Art Conservation Department subsequently moved to SUNY Buffalo in 1987.) In the program, Ann studied paintings conservation with Sheldon and Caroline Keck. She graduated with a master’s in art conservation in 1972 and undertook a year-long internship at the San Francisco Museum of Art (now known as SFMOMA). 

Back in Cooperstown, Ann began to practice paintings conservation privately, at first with a partner in the basement of the Village Offices building, and then on her own in a studio she had built behind the family home on Route 28, just south of Cooperstown. She worked restoring paintings for museums, collectors and art dealers until her retirement in 1993. A particular focus Ann took up was the restoration of Works Progress Administration murals in U.S. Post Offices across the country. 

Ann and Walter are survived by their sons, Patrick (Nancy Tarr) and Timothy (Jennifer Mandel), and their grandchildren, Henry and Naomi Wager, and Mercer Mandel. While living in Cooperstown, Ann and Walter were known for their active participation in the village’s arts and culture community, including serving on the boards of Gallery 53 and the Friends of the Library. A short memorial will be held on the front porch of the Village Offices building on Saturday, June 21 at 11 a.m.