Died October 7, 1969
Sara “Jo” Estrada, a 42-year-old barmaid at the Twilight Zone in Detroit, was murdered during a robbery of the West Side gay bar in October 1969.
Author: michiganlgbtqremember
Brenda Gooslin
October 22, 1970 – May 24, 2013
St. Clair Shores resident Brenda Gooslin studied at Macomb Community College and worked in service information development for General Motors. She was survived by Susan Frederick, her life partner of 19 years.
Leo Janas
October 5, 1922 – April 28, 2002
Leo Janas worked in the shipping industry and resided over the years in Wyandotte, Melvindale, and Dearborn. In 1953, he became the first person from Metro Detroit to subscribe to ONE magazine.
LeRoy Holmberg Jr.
April 24, 1947 – October 18, 2000
LeRoy Holmberg Jr., an adjunct professor at the University of Detroit-Mercy and past Detroit Area Gay/Lesbian Council president, was long active in various local LGBTQ organizations.
Robert Brunner
July 14, 1955 – June 11, 1999
For more than 25 years, Robert Brunner performed female impersonation in Detroit under the name Melba Moore, winning the Miss Gay Continental U.S.A. title for 1981-82 and honored for Lifetime Achievement by the Performers Awards of Detroit in 1999.
Heather MacAllister
February 25, 1968 – February 13, 2007
Heather MacAllister was a staffer for the Triangle Foundation in the 1990s. She later moved to San Francisco where she founded Big Burlesque, the original Fat Bottom Revue. Suffering from ovarian cancer, she died by assisted suicide at age 38.
Bay Area Reporter, February 22, 2007
Between The Lines, February 22, 2007
Lesbian Connection, May/June 2007
Larry Barnard
September 20, 1937 – March 15, 1990
A retired school teacher, Larry Barnard founded the Greater Lansing Gay Men’s Chorus, was active with the Lansing Area AIDS Network, and served as an officer and volunteer in several capacities for the Lansing Association for Human Rights and the Michigan Organization for Human Rights.
Donna Chartier
August 17, 1937 – September 2, 2014
From 1974 to 1979, Donna Chartier, her then partner Diane Bono, and their friend June Reynolds operated the Casbah, the first lesbian-owned lesbian bar in Metro Detroit.
David Krumroy
June 30, 1949 -January 18, 1989
His 1975 arrest in an undercover police crackdown on homosexual activity in Hines Park prompted David Krumroy to help form the Association of Suburban People. Krumroy went on to edit Metro Gay News and co-found the Motor City Business Forum. He died from AIDS-related complications at age 39.
Henry Van Dyke
October 3, 1928 – December 22, 2011
Born in Allegan, Henry Lewis Van Dyke Jr. served in the U.S. Army and earned a B.A. and M.A. at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, where he developed lifelong gay friendships. He later authored several novels and taught as a writer-in-residence at Kent State.
Michigan LGBTQ Remember 