December 24, 1962 – October 8, 2017
A graduate of Portage High School, Lora Yates earned her B.S. in manufacturing administration and her M.S. in engineering management from Western Michigan University. After moving to New Jersey, she served on her local school board. In 2010, Yates, her wife Pamela, and their twins Ella and Max relocated to Illinois, where she worked as an executive for Sysmex America.
August 9, 1926 – March 5, 2010
Longtime Utica resident Ernest Horne was born in Boston, served in the U.S. Navy during World War II, graduated from Harvard University, and moved to Detroit in the late 1940s. From 1961 to 1992, he was a librarian at the GM Tech Center in Warren. Horne was active in numerous Detroit area organizations, including the Association of Suburban People, the Detroit Area Gay/Lesbian Council, the Forum Foundation, and Affirmations.
November 19, 1930 – October 4, 2013
A native of Muncie, Indiana, Betty Jo Hudson earned her Bachelor’s and Master’s from Ball State University. After a long career as a university administrator, including more than two decades at Ohio State University, she and her life partner Barbara Young retired to Torch Lake in the northern lower peninsula.
July 1, 1954 – August 28, 1996
Born in Middleville in Barry County, Rexford Palmer moved to Detroit as a young adult to work in retail. He continued his retail career after relocating in the mid-1980s to San Francisco, where he became active in the San Francisco AIDS Foundation.
August 27, 1965 – June 4, 2015
A graduate of Cardinal Spellman High School in the Bronx, Vielka Holness received her B.A. from New York University. She studied law at the University of Michigan Law School, clerked with the Michigan Court of Appeals, earned a Masters from Columbia, and received certification from Harvard’s Management Development Program in Higher Ed. She capped an esteemed career serving as director for Post-Graduate Opportunities and the Pre-Law Institute of John Jay College.
October 24, 1962 – July 22, 1994
Christopher Case attended Washtenaw Community College for his LPN and worked for many years in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the University of Michigan Hospital. Case was also active in the Ann Arbor theater scene. He died of complications from AIDS at age 31.
April 7, 1921 – June 15, 2014
As a fighter pilot in World War II, Pontiac native and Rochester Hills resident Robert Harper survived weeks in the jungles of the Philippines after his plane was shot down. With degrees from Albion and Michigan State University, he taught in the Waterford Schools for twenty-five years. Harper was of a generation that never told their parents they were gay.
February 5, 1966 – June 9, 2017
Born in Pontiac, Duane Froelich was a 1984 graduate of Oscoda High School and a 1992 graduate of Central Michigan University. He was employed in the restaurant industry in Columbus, Ohio for 20 years before returning to Oscoda, where he worked for the auto supplier Cooper Standard.
January 8, 1949 – July 24, 2017
Onetime Windsor resident and Chrysler employee, Garnet “Bill” Beetham was owner of the Male Box in Detroit and Male Box II in Warren. He supported the Metro Detroit Softball League and numerous other gay causes in the Metro Area.
March 29, 1987 – August 19, 2017
Grand Rapids native Regina DeVries attended Aquinas College and Grand Rapids Community College. She married Abigail Southworth in Connecticut in 2009, just months after the state legalized same-sex marriage.
Michigan LGBTQ Remember 