November 23, 1857 – January 11, 1915
Born in Newark, Ohio, Katharine Coman graduated from the University of Michigan in 1880 and went on to become a leading industrial historian and dean of Wellesley College. Prior to her death at age 58, she shared a 25-year relationship with poet and Wellesley professor Katherine Lee Bates in what was then known as a “Boston marriage.”
April 6, 1949 – January 23, 2015
Originally from Detroit, Adrian resident Bonnie Miller worked for Faraday fire alarm manufacturers and shared a home with her life partner Esther Stoker.
May 31, 1951 – September 4, 1996
Detroit native Joe Elias graduated from Notre Dame High School in Harper Woods in 1969 and received his B.A. in sociology from the University of Detroit-Mercy in 1973. He worked in personnel at Chrysler and later relocated to Chicago and San Francisco.
November 14, 1993 – January 2, 2016
Born in Muskegon, Miranda Starr Bennett was active in sports and music at Muskegon High School with a special devotion to the saxophone. She worked for Wendy’s and Taco Bell. Among her survivors was her life partner Kendra Boos.
March 29, 1928 – November 1, 2007
A native of Ypsilanti, Mary White earned a B.A. from Eastern Michigan University in 1950, served as a counselor for the Orchard Ridge Campus of Oakland Community College from 1966 to 1992, and was active in the Gaia Women of the Great Lakes Basin chorus. She worked as a psychologist in Royal Oak before retiring to Gilbert Lake near Empire, Michigan.
Lesbian Connection, March/April 2008
December 9, 1972 – March 31, 2006
Born in Saginaw, Annette Berkobien graduated from Michigan State University in 1996 with a B.A. with a degree in interdisciplinary studies. A poet, artist, and playwright, she worked for women’s shelters in Detroit and Lansing before moving to Oakland, California to attend the New College of California.
Lesbian Connection, July/August 2006
April 24, 1929 – April 16, 2004
Usein “Mike” Alieff Jr. grew up in Pontiac and for many years ran his own piano school in Birmingham. He and his life companion Max LePard shared a home in Royal Oak for more than forty years. In their retirement, he and LePard were crochet instructors at the Royal Oak Senior Center.
July 19, 1920 – October 27, 2002
Max LePard grew up in Owosso and served in the U.S. Army during World War II. He owned a beauty salon in Birmingham in the 1960s and later operated his own graphic art business in Royal Oak, where he lived for more than forty years with his life partner Usein Alieff.
Daily Tribune, October 29, 2002
May 28, 1944 – March 31, 2014
West Bloomfield resident Linda Lee became active in the Michigan Jewish AIDS Coalition in the early 1990s after learning of discrimination gay men were experiencing at the height of the epidemic. In her commitment to social justice she later founded Jewish Gay Network and was a tireless advocate for LGBTQ people in Southeast Michigan.
November 4, 1914 – January 18, 1991
Pianist Stennis Ousley accompanied Bramwell “ChiChi” Franklin at the Golden Slipper and other venues in the 1950s. She performed solo at various straight and gay bars into the 1980s, including the Willis Show Bar, the Tryst Club, and the Deck.
No known obituary.
Michigan LGBTQ Remember 