September 2, 1936 – December 26, 2019
Kentucky native Ann Sorrell moved to Detroit at age seven. She sold bakery goods, worked as a postal worker, and served in the U.S. Marine Corps Reserve before earning her B.A. and M.A. from Eastern Michigan University. She taught the hearing impaired in the Ann Arbor schools. Sorrell and her life partner Marge Elde were among the first lesbian couples married in Washtenaw County in June 2015.
September 4, 1993 – June 11, 2019
Grand Rapids resident Alice Joy Anderson was born in Holland. Anderson’s creativity drew her to mythology, literature, music, architecture, history, and photography, and a passion for LEGO building blocks. Her studies took her to India and Iceland. At age 16, Anderson entered Hope College, where she worked as a set carpenter in the Theater Department and earned her B.A. in studio art in 2016.
August 2, 1960 – February 11, 2019
James Osmond Brown II, known to customers and leather community members as Diamond Jim, grew up in Highland Park and graduated from Detroit’s Cass Tech High School. Over the years, he held such titles as Mr. R&R, Mr. Leather Detroit, and Mr. Michigan Leather and in 1994 helped form the Michigan International Gay Rodeo Association. From 2001 to 2010, Brown operated Diamond Jim’s Saloon.
June 2, 1966 – February 21, 2019
Lisa Maria Rodriguez Ortiz was born in Chicago and as a teenager moved to Michigan, where she graduated from Okemos High School and attended the University of Michigan and Boston College. For 26 years she taught Spanish at Greenhills School in Ann Arbor. Ortiz resided in Ypsilanti with her daughters and wife Julia Marvin.
May 3, 1948 – November 5, 2019
Grosse Pointe Park resident Stuart George Itzkowitz moved Detroit in 1974 after earning his Masters at the University of Michigan. He became active with the Wayne State University GLF, was a founder of MOHR, and served on the board of Wellness Networks. He went on to get his Ph.D. from Wayne State, where he later taught. Itzkowitz was preceded in death by his husband and partner of 38 years Larry Zimmerman.
April 1, 1963 – September 20, 2019
The first female player on the Little League baseball team in Spring Lake Park, Minnesota, Sarah Ann Flick was born in Chicago and lived in Grand Rapids in the late 1980s. She spent 18 years in law enforcement, retiring in 2017 from the Ottawa County Sheriff’s Department. Flick passed away from cancer at the home she shared in Ada, Michigan with her wife Heidi Gidley.
March 28, 1964 – April 3, 2019
Canton resident Rodger Lynn Williams was born in Detroit, graduated from Clarenceville High School in Livonia, and later studied at William Tyndale College in Farmington Hills. Rev. Williams received his religious training at Concordia Seminary in Missouri and for 13 years served as pastor of Divine Shepherd Lutheran Church in Ann Arbor.
August 1, 1952 – August 3, 2019
Originally from Pittsfield, Massachusetts, Diane Boulais resided in Ludington with her wife Ann Schrader, who she met in 2001 while attending People’s Church. Her worked variously as a surgical technician, an organic farmer, and a dune buggy tour guide. Boulais also volunteered with West Michigan Community Mental Health, speaking against stigma and lobbying the Michigan legislature and the U.S. Congress.
June 11, 1962 – June 25, 2019
Saginaw native Patricia “Pat” Ann Lawrence-Smith, also known as Patricia Smith, worked as an emergency medical technician in Genesee County and resided for 25 years in Davison. She and her partner Lauriejane Smith were united in marriage in September 2015.
December 8, 1998 – February 16, 2019
Dani Som, also known as Dani Sommerville, was born in Southfield and was a 2017 graduate of Berkley High School. He received a Spirit of Detroit Award in 2015 for achievement and leadership, including his involvement in music and theater, as well as extensive volunteer work. As an out young trans man, Som was active with Affirmations and FtM Detroit. Months after moving to Oregon, he took his own life.
Michigan LGBTQ Remember 