November 10, 1947 – December 24, 2019
Grammy-winning songwriter Alta Sharral “Allee” Willis was born in Detroit and graduated in 1965 from Mumford High School. Following college in Wisconsin, Willis moved to New York, where she launched her music career. Her credits include songs for Earth, Wind, and Fire, the Pointer Sisters, Bonnie Rait, and the theme for the sitcom Friends. Willis was survived by her partner of 27 years Prudence Fenton.
June 21, 1928 – September 6, 2017
Ohio native Paul Eugene Espenscheid enjoyed a long career in hospitality, from the 1970s to the late 1980s was part owner and manager of the Howard Johnson Motor Lodge in Monroe. Following the death of Mike Crawford in 1988, Espenschied became co-owner with Don Hazlett of Menjo’s dance club in Detroit. Beyond his business interests, he also supported a number of AIDS and gay rights causes.
June 28, 1944 – October 26, 2020
A 1961 graduate of Lansing Sexton High School, Jean Fillingham met her life partner Ilona Sabo-Shuler in the late 1970s and the two shared homes together in Okemos and Lansing’s West Side neighborhood. In addition to Sabo-Shuler, Fillingham was survived by her son, daughter, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren.
September 1, 1988 – May 13, 2020
Kody William VanGuilder of Midland, formerly of Bay City, earned his B.A. in psychology and philosophy from Eastern Michigan University in 2010. He held jobs at Tim Hortons and McDonald’s, as well as at the University of Michigan as a teaching assistant. In 2018, VanGuilder married Alex Sage, who survives him.
September 26, 1945 – September 4, 2020
Hailing from Texas, Carolyn Ann Van Cleave earned her Ph.D. in psychology from Ball State. She joined the faculty of Central Michigan University in 1978, working in the counseling center, and opened her own private practice in Mount Pleasant in the mid-1980s. Van Cleave and her partner Marsha Phillips were united in marriage in 2015.
September 28, 1956 – June 1, 2017
Monroe native James Asher graduated from Monroe High School in 1974 and went on to undergraduate studies at The Ohio State University and graduate studies at California State. Prior to moving to California, he played professional tennis through racquet clubs in Bloomfield Hills and Rochester Hills. In later years he coached and taught high school English. He was survived by his partner Brent Sweer.
January 16, 1935 – June 2, 2006
Marilyn Kay Ramm of Auburn was a graduate with the class of 1953 of Bay City Central High School. She received her nursing degree from Harper Hospital in Detroit and earned her Master’s at Wayne State University. Ramm and her partner Suzanne Slaughter were together for 35 years.
January 2, 1897 – October 11, 1964
Harold Clement Auer was born in Cadillac. In 1921, while working as a writer for the Detroit Free Press, he wrote a fan letter to famed British author Edward Carpenter, correspondence later included in Jonathan Ned Katz’s 1983 book Gay/Lesbian Almanac. Auer spent the last 20 years of his life in the Eloise Psychiatric Hospital in Westland, later known as Wayne County General Hospital and Infirmary.
No known obituary
October 1, 1956 – July 2, 2021
Born in Flint, Denis Christopher-Ryan graduated from Southwestern High School in 1974. He held retail and bank jobs before working at Genesee County Mental Health, where he retired after 20 years of service. In the mid-1990s, he served as a DJ at the short-lived gay nightclub Studio 910. Christopher-Ryan moved to Las Vegas in 2001 and held a second career in the hospitality industry.
November 14, 1964 – February 13, 2018
Vanessa Goldman, also known as Vanessa Prygoski, graduated from Our Lady of Mt. Carmel High School in Wyandotte. She earned her B.S. at Central Michigan University in 1987 and her M.I.L.S. from the University of Michigan in 1990. A librarian at Cooley Law School, Baker College in both Owosso and Jackson, and for 18 years at UM-Flint, Goldman also played with the Metro Detroit LGBT Softball League.
Michigan LGBTQ Remember 