November 4, 1951 – November 23, 2015
Linda Eileen Gesterling was born in Bixby Knolls, California and resided in Glendale, Arizona when she passed away. In the 1980s she lived in Lansing, where she was employed with the Social Security Administration and was a 1990 graduate of Michigan State University. Gesterling was survived by her spouse Lisa Howell.
July 9, 1935 – April 29, 2016
Redford Township native Toni Langfield came out following a heterosexual marriage. She enjoyed a long career as a children’s librarian in the San Francisco Bay area and was active in Old Lesbians Organizing for Change. Langfield was preceded in death by a son and was survived by another son, two daughters, and Carly Rivers, her partner of more than 20 years.
July 27, 1932 – July 18, 2017
Nancy Ledins was born in Cleveland, Ohio as William Griglak, was ordained as a Catholic priest in 1959, and served as an assistant rector at St. Anthony parish in Detroit in the early 1960s. After leaving the priesthood to marry a nun, William transitioned to Nancy in 1979 and was obliged to divorce. In her last years, Rev. Ledins resumed ministering with a congregation in Charlotte, North Carolina.
March 28, 1964 – April 3, 2019
Canton resident Rodger Lynn Williams was born in Detroit, graduated from Clarenceville High School in Livonia, and later studied at William Tyndale College in Farmington Hills. Rev. Williams received his religious training at Concordia Seminary in Missouri and for 13 years served as pastor of Divine Shepherd Lutheran Church in Ann Arbor.
April 29, 1949 – January 25, 2018
A native of Warren, Ohio, Rev. Senia Taipale attended Wittenberg University and earned her Master of Divinity degree from Trinity Lutheran Seminary in Columbus, Ohio. After moving to Michigan, she became Director of Pastoral Care at Sparrow Hospital in 1992, a position she held for 18 years. She and Jo Hartwell, her life partner of 31 years, were married in December 2015.
June 8, 1923 – February 27, 2015
Nationally renowned Episcopal priest, civil rights activist, and author Rev. Malcolm Boyd made headlines in the mid-1970s when he came out as gay. During the early 1960s, he served as chaplain at Wayne State University in Detroit. His many books included Take Off the Masks and Gay Priest: An Inner Journey. Boyd was survived by his husband Mark Thompson.
Between The Lines, March 12, 2015
Malcolm Boyd Papers at the Howard Gotlieb Archival Research Center
October 19, 1891 – May 9, 1978
Dearborn native Marguerite Bieber Hicks attended the University of Michigan as an undergraduate from 1910 to 1911, finished her B.A. in English at Wayne State University while a housewife in 1935, and completed her M.A. in 1938. During the 1930s and 1940s, with the help of her longtime partner Thelma James, Hicks amassed a rare collection of books by and about women from the 17th and 18th centuries.
Detroit Free Press, May 10, 1978
May 30, 1899 – January 23, 1988
Thelma Gray James graduated with high distinction from the University of Michigan in 1920. She joined the faculty of the College of the City of Detroit, forerunner of Wayne State University, in 1923, retiring from Wayne in 1967 as a pioneering folklorist. James shared various Detroit homes with her close partner of 40 years Marguerite Hicks.
Detroit Free Press, January 24, 1988
March 30, 1889 – August 25, 1970
Born in Hannibal, Missouri, Eva McKinley West earned her Bachelor’s degree at Wellesley College and Master’s at Columbia University. From 1927 to 1964, she chaired the English Department at the University Liggett School. West shared homes in Detroit and Grosse Pointe Woods for more than 35 years with Liggett headmistress Katharine Ogden.
Grosse Pointe News, August 27, 1970
October 20, 1896 – March 6, 1991
Longtime headmistress at the Liggett School, later known as the University Liggett School, Katharine Ogden was born in Ithaca, New York, received her B.S. at Vassar College, and earned her Ph.D. from the University of Illinois. For more than 35 years, she resided in Detroit and Grosse Pointe Woods with her friend and companion Eva McKinley West, who preceded Ogden in death.
Grosse Pointe News, March 14, 1991
Michigan LGBTQ Remember 