April 25, 1926 – September 5, 2015
Mary Elizabeth Pyle was born in Lansing and graduated from Lakeview Highland High School in Battle Creek in 1944, a member of its first graduating class. She was employed as a secretary with Post Cereals for more than 30 years and after retiring in the mid-1980s moved to Phoenix. Pyle was preceded in death by her partner of five decades Patsy Spahr and in her last years wintered back in Michigan.
November 30, 1926 – February 8, 2003
James Louis Limbacher, audio-visual librarian with the Dearborn Public Library for 35 years, was born in Ohio and moved to Michigan in 1955. He earned his Master’s in library science degree at Wayne State and also taught at Wayne as a world-renowned film historian. Limbacher was active with the Association of Suburban People and the Forum Foundation.
Detroit Free Press, February 13, 2003
March 3, 1926 – May 4, 2018
Shirley Schick had to drop out of Marshall High School during World War II to help run the family farm. Schick was a trained pilot and for nearly 30 years, she and her life partner Margret Kellogg grew orchids in Washington State. In 1998 they retired to a 12-acre home back in Michigan.
August 3, 1926 – December 26, 2013
Detroit native Neva Weidig graduated from Denby High School in 1944 and earned her Bachelor’s from Heidelberg University in 1949. She was a Girl Scout troop leader and was employed with Kmart corporate headquarters. Weidig shared a home in Royal Oak with her partner of 45 years Dianne Chapman.
July 10, 1926 – June 22, 2010
Margaret Lorick of Flint was employed as a cafeteria worker, a machine operator, and an office secretary before earning her degree to become a teacher. Lorick described attending gay house parties hosted by Ruth Ellis in Detroit during the 1950s for an essay in the collection Inventing Lesbian Cultures in 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.
August 15, 1926 – January 8, 2003
Delores “Dee” Sweet operated D’s Lounge in Mount Clemens during the 1970s and ’80s, at the time the only gay bar in operation in Macomb County.
No known obituary.
Michigan LGBTQ Remember 