April 22, 1948 – December 18, 1978
Muskegon native Gregory Don Williams graduated with the class of 1966 from Muskegon Catholic High School and subsequently attended Michigan State University and Wayne State University. In June 1972, he took part in Michigan’s first-ever pride celebration in Detroit. At the time of his death, he was employed with a Wall Street brokerage firm in New York.
Muskegon Chronicle, December 20, 1978
October 10, 1953 – October 8, 1978
Born in Battle Creek, John Wayne Schallberg attended Climax-Scotts High School, graduated from American Beauty College, and operated the Masquerade Shop in Climax. He was a participant in the Kalamazoo Gay Liberation Front and, as Nadine, was one of several drag queens who rode the hood of a Ford in Detroit’s first pride parade in 1972. Schallberg took his own life just before his 25th birthday.
Kalamazoo Gazette, October 10, 1978
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
Michigan LGBTQ Remember 