Garé acted as a consultant when Carl drew the second half of his Menuhune story, U$04 'Hawaiian Hideaway', which takes place in her native Hawaii. She contributed first-hand knowledge for all sorts of things, which her husband then 'translated' into graphic form. Here are a few examples: Food (guavas, mangoes, ama-ama fish), plants (hau trees, elephant ears, tropical flowers), Polynesian phrases (pupule, malihini, kanes), geography (Hawaii, Mauna Kika Nui, Oahu), and folklore (Menehunes, mullet ponds, leis).

Garé was born without half her left arm (a few inches from the elbow down), and she was always very particular to hide the fact in different ways when posing for official photos.
In a mail to the editor in 2008 one of Carl's grandchildren wrote: ...One of my vivid memories of Garé is her incredible dexterity with only one hand. You should have seen her iron a dress and sew on a button...

Carl and Garé owned a teddy bear named Monty and during the years it was given an increasingly robust past from the couple's vivid imagination.
In a letter from 1983 to Dorothy, Garé wrote: ... I enclose a picture of our bear. He is such an expressive little guy it is hard to realize he is only a toy. We bought him from a visiting professor from Montana University who makes bears in his spare time. We've named him 'Monty', and have built up a robust past for him in fantasy, like saying he rode shotgun on Wells Fargo stages over the Bitterroots ...

Carl very rarely took a full vacation in his entire life, but he would from time to time drive through some of the states just to relax. He often drove Garé out to locations where she could sketch new ideas on her sketchpad for use in the fantastic landscape paintings back in her studio.

When Garé and Carl met briefly in 1943 for the first time, they were both married. In 1952 Garé had gone through a painful divorce - as had Carl the year before - when she, by pure chance, happened to meet Carl again at a county fair, and they started dating.

Garé and Carl owned a piece of land at Gig Harbor, which is situated 50 kilometers south of Seattle in Washington State. The area is widely known as a leisure resort with beaches, marinas, and golf courses. It was meant to be their refuge in the golden years.

WDCS075 'The Turkey Shoot'

According to Garé her husband was generally disappointed that he was not allowed to sign his stories. From time to time he would sneak in his signature or other means of identification, but the attempts were almost always discovered by Western and removed before printing. Here is one of the few exceptions, in which Carl, apparently, invented a new type of canned food for pets...

CP9 Christmas in Duckburg

In this one story Carl managed to sneak in Garé's name as the name of a department store in a panel. Observe that for some reason he omitted the accent mark over the letter E...

While they were living in the San Jacinto area Garé and Carl were often invited to act as judges at different art gallery contests. The photo shows them standing to the far left after having appointed a winner at the Junior Woman's Art Exhibit in Hemet.

Besides all her well-known artistic qualities Garé was also a writer! Granted, she only had one article published, and it was titled A Recollection and it appeared in Uncle Scrooge McDuck - His Life and Times. In it Garé gives an account of her comic book work with her husband.

Silent Night

Letter to Dorothy, October 1976: ...Gotta go and get to finishing the last painting - till we get moved. It's one of those Xmas card things with a million animals in it. And it's awfully hard to concentrate when there are so many other things waiting to be done...

From the early 1980s Garé experienced growing health problems from cancer, but she was still working long hours at her beloved easel almost every day. Her deteriorating health and the fact that she eventually needed to sit in a wheel-chair caused her husband to design the couple's last dwelling near the current one in Grants Pass, Oregon. Sadly, she died just three days after they moved in.. .

Garé and Carl were investigating mobile homes; they needed one with LOTS of storage space for all their art equipment:
...What we want to do is continue painting - but not at such a pace as we have been. The work is good for both of us to a point - it's interesting - but we want to be able to relax a bit and enjoy life a bit, too, be able to take a few trips, etc. and not feel bound to the house...

The couple put their house up for sale when they purchased their mobile home. Garé was looking forward to living in the new home, with the kitchen and her studio near each other.
...(Now) the kitchen is downstairs and the studios upstairs. And when I'm working, painting, and trying to cook it's impossible - I don't try to do both together anymore, burned too much stuff...

Garé's autograph is very different from the well-known signature she always used for her paintings. In fact, it is surprisingly similar to that of her husband's:

In 1971 there was talk of making nothing less than an educational painting film about 'The Great Barks', as he sarcastically put it himself. Here is a raw sketch clearly conveying his - and Garé's - view on the project, which never came about...

Despite of his teamwork with Garé, Carl always saw the comic book job as a lonely one. But he liked the solitude at the drawing board. He never really teamed up with anybody but his wife.

At the start of their golden years Garé introduced Carl to the world of painting and - as was the case during his comic book career - she turned out to be a valued help and critic.

Carl was allergic to many animals but not birds. So Garé kept, in a large cage on the covered patio, a half-dozen tropical yellow-billed magpies which she affectionately named ... The Beagle Boys.

Bombie the Zombie

When it came to the naturalistic backgrounds in his paintings, Carl often received both inspiration and help from his wife. I'm not very good at swamps, he remarked about this painting, so Garé gave him a few pointers in order to get it right.

Ferd'nand

The Danish immigrant Henning Dahl Mikkelsen (better known under his artist name Mik) created the immensely popular silent comic strip Ferd'nand in 1937 was a treasured friend of the Barkses. Garé would occasionally contribute gags to the series.

WDCS182 'Grandma's Bull'

In the early summer of 1955 the couple had arranged for a small vacation and Carl was busy finishing this story before they could leave. One panel called for mountains of china to be drawn. Luckily Garé came to his assistance.