September 8, 1966 – January 3, 2004
Detroit resident Robert Allen Stubbs worked as a bartender at the Back Pocket and Rattlebox and was also employed for ten years by Ford Motor Company.
Maria Bickel
October 31, 1979 – July 27, 2011
Saginaw resident Maria Danielle Bickel was employed by Nexteel automotive and belonged to St. Lorenz Lutheran Church in Frankenmuth. She was survived by her partner Jillian Peterson.
Connie McConnohie
September 14, 1944 – June 24, 2005
Born in Los Angeles, Connie McConnohie moved to Detroit in the early 1970s where she worked for the city’s department of social services and became involved in gay lib politics. After a split with the Detroit Gay Activists, McConnohie formed the Motor City Alliance of Gays and published Gayzette, a short-lived local gay newspaper. In 1973, she ran as an open lesbian for a city council seat, losing in the primary.
Detroit Free Press, April 18, 2006
Joan Corbin
May 21, 1921 – March 4, 2004
Joan Jeanette Corbin was born in Armada, grew up in Richmond, and moved to Los Angeles in 1946. With her then-partner Irma Wolf, Corbin was a founding member of the board for ONE Incorporated, publisher of ONE magazine. She served as art director for ONE under the pseudonym Eve Elloree from 1953 to 1963. Corbin continued to draw into her 70s, when she was diagnosed with breast cancer.
No known obituary
Vicki Arcaro
October 20, 1966 – May 19, 2014
Vicki Arcaro grew up in Jackson and graduated from Jackson High School. She earned her Bachelor’s from Michigan State University and was employed as an imaging technician for Allegiance Health for 21 years. She died at age 47 after a three-year battle with cancer. Arcaro was survived by her wife Jaime Sabin and daughter Gabby.
Win Wells
April 3, 1933 – December 6, 1983
Originally from Arkansas, Winfred Wells was raised in Detroit and in the 1950s became a noted local beatnik poet. In the 1960s he performed female impersonation under his own name at the Diplomat Lounge. Wells subsequently moved to England, where he wrote screenplays and lived with his longtime companion, director Silvio Narizzano.
London Times, December 8, 1983
Bill Gunther
April 26, 1955 – September 27, 1991
Born in Detroit, Wilmer Gunther Jr. worked for many years at the Deck in Detroit and performed locally as Hummin Helen. Gunther also worked as a floral designer. He died from AIDS-related complications at age 36.
Gilbert Whelden Jr.
March 23, 1921 – June 12, 2018
Detroit native Gilbert Hart Whelden Jr. attended Cranbrook Academy and Olivet College before serving in the U.S. Army during World War II. He later graduated from Michigan State University and worked as an interior designer for J.L. Hudson. He was also a member of the Forum Foundation and Unlimited Seniors. In retirement, Whelden shared a home in Leland with his partner Paul Kieren.
Sharon Piazza
September 2, 1941 – April 20, 1992
Detroit native and onetime resident of Dallas, Texas, Sharon Piazza worked as a bouncer at Menjo’s in Detroit and performed in local community theater.
Bill Cornell
October 24, 1927 – July 6, 1961
Born in Detroit, William John Cornell attended Wayne University and, as one of city’s premier theatrical press agents in the 1950s, represented various stars when they visited the Motor City, including Ethel Merman and Marlena Dietrich. Cornell and his partner Peter Prass were killed when a fire gutted their Chicago Boulevard apartment.
Detroit Free Press, July 7, 1961
Michigan LGBTQ Remember 