September 22, 1946 – June 27, 2011
A dedicated and influential figure in Kalamazoo’s LGBTQ community, Jim Knox was co-founder in 1985 of Community AIDS Resource and Education Services and co-founder in 1987 of the Kalamazoo Gay Lesbian Resource Center, later renamed OutFront Kalamazoo. Knox was also a longtime employee of the Barn Theatre in Augusta.
June 25, 1949 – December 5, 2011
Margaret Ellen “Maggie” Mendoskin was born in Flint and was a member of Holy Rosary Catholic Church. Mendoskin earned her cosmetology license in 1970 and worked as a hairstylist in the Flint area for more than three decades. She and her partner Melinda Rea shared a home in Genesee Township and were later buried together.
September 21, 1978 – August 2, 2011
Kerstin Monroe graduated from Webberville High School and was employed with the Riverwind Assisted Living facility in Williamston. She lost her life a month before their planned wedding when a car she was riding in was hit by a semi-truck that failed to stop. Monroe was survived by her fiancé Courtney.
Lesbian Connection, January/February 2012
January 29, 1956 – January 20, 2011
West Bloomfield resident and University of Michigan football fan Heather Louise Higgins hosted popular Port of Call parties at her home on Middle Straits Lake, enjoying water skiing and riding on her pontoon. Since 2003, she was the owner of Tis Herself Entertainment. Higgins died from cancer at age 54.
Lesbian Connection, July/August 2011
August 18, 1946 – January 14, 2011
Cynthia Susan Everling, known to friends as Cindy, graduated from Pontiac Central High School and studied philosophy at Oakland University, with additional studies at Eastern Michigan University and the University of Michigan. She was a case manager and grant writer for the HIV/AIDS Resource Center. Everling resided in Ann Arbor with her partner of 28 years Lin Jacobs.
February 2, 1931 – September 28, 2011
Nydia Jane Nichols grew up in Plainwell, graduated from Plainwell High School, and worked in bookkeeping and accounting. In her later years, she and her life partner Patricia Cutshaw shared a home in Kalamazoo.
September 13, 1950 – December 19, 2011
Originally from Pine Bluff, Arkansas, Al Brewer sang at such gay Detroit clubs as Bookie’s, My Fair Lady, and the Other Side in the 1970s. He received multiple nominations for best live male vocalist from the Performers Awards of Detroit. Toward the end of his life, Brewer served as Karaoke host at the Temple Bar.
No known obituary
December 31, 1950 – October 26, 2011
Saginaw resident Lenore Simon was born in Chicago and earned her JD from Creighton University Law School in Omaha. Nebraska. In addition to practicing law as an attorney and mediator for more than 20 years, Simon co-founded a queer theater company Center in Monterey, California in the early 1990s and later continued the troupe in Las Vegas. She and her partner Connie Hoffman were married in 2009.
Lesbian Connection, March/April 2012
August 1, 1944 – September 13, 2011
Born in Battle Creek, Sharon Kay Beck resided in Mount Morris and retired after 30 years from Saginaw Steering Gear-Delphi in 2002. She enjoyed running, her poodles, and traveling in northern Michigan with Hope, her partner of 27 years.
February 3, 1938 – June 28, 2011
At age 21, Charles Casper was among nearly three dozen men entrapped by police in a crackdown on homosexual activity at the University of Michigan in late 1959 and early 1960. He earned his B.A. at UM and went on to receive a J.D. at the University of Pennsylvania. As an attorney, Casper practiced law in his hometown of LaGrange, Illinois.
Michigan LGBTQ Remember 