November 7, 1948 – November 5, 2010
Mary Frances Crimmins of was born in Port Huron and graduated from Saints Peter & Paul High School in Saginaw. She pursued a lifelong career as a Licensed Practical Nurse. She volunteered with Edgewood UCC Health Ministry and the Greater Lansing Food Bank. Crimmins was survived by her life partner Carol Grayhawk.
November 17, 1971 – November 1, 2010
Quinn Collins came out as a transman to his mother in 2002 and inspired her to form Chicago’s first chapter of Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays specifically devoted to parents of transgender offspring. Months before his death, Collins moved to New Buffalo, where police questioning about the gender on his driver’s license during a traffic stop made him feel unsafe in the small Michigan town.
September 20, 1920 – April 23, 2010
A 1939 graduate of Eastern High School in Lansing, Joseph Covello served in the Army Air Corps in World War II. He operated Joe Covello’s as a mainstay in Lansing’s gay community from the early 1970s until it was closed for urban renewal in the early 1990s. Covello was preceded in death by Helen, his wife of 63 years.
September 26, 1941 – December 10, 2010
Allegan resident Dianna “Jo” Bortz and her husband Jay were active in the Holland/Lakeshore chapter of Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays. She was a member of All Saints Episcopal Church in Saugatuck. Prior to retirement, Bortz worked in senior care and protective services.
February 17, 1965 – May 17, 2010
Janine Denommé was born in Detroit and majored in religious studies at the University of Detroit Mercy. She later earned her doctorate at the University of Pennsylvania and served as director of youth programs at the Center on Halsted in Chicago. In April 2010, Denommé fulfilled a lifelong dream and was ordained by the Roman Catholic Womenpriests contrary to the Church’s ban on women priests.
May 26, 1951 – November 24, 2010
Jackson resident Christine Lee Abshire went to Saranac High School and worked as a communications supervisor for Huron Valley Ambulance for nearly 30 years. She was survived by three sons and her life partner Debbie Oldenburg.
July 21, 1964 – May 8, 2010
Eaton Rapids native Roger “Chip” Neufer II worked as a custodian with the local schools in the 1980s and later owned and trained horses for harness racing. He shared a home in Lansing’s Old Town with partner Mark Mattocks.
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.
October 17, 1930 – July 31, 2010
JoAnn Westrick grew up in Toledo, Ohio and earned her B.S. in Nursing from Wayne State in Detroit in 1969. From 1975 to 1993 she taught on the faculty of Michigan State University college of Nursing, specializing in psychiatric mental-health nursing. She was survived by her partner of 27 years Donna Hardenberg.
April 14, 1942 – June 26, 2010
Betsy Lou Robson of Lansing worked as a bus driver for the Capital Area Transit Authority from 1973 to 2001. Following her death, her family established a scholarship in her name for LGBT students at Lansing Community College.
Michigan LGBTQ Remember 