October 4, 1947 – April 4, 2020
Detroit native Raymond Henry Warner Jr. graduated with the class of 1965 from Redford Union High School, attended Wayne State University, and worked for the State of Michigan from 1970 until his retirement. He was an early leader in the Detroit Gay Liberation Front, and wrote for the Gay Liberator and Gayzette newspapers. Warner became active in the Libertarian Party, running for Congress in 1996.
June 28, 1944 – October 26, 2020
A 1961 graduate of Lansing Sexton High School, Jean Fillingham met her life partner Ilona Sabo-Shuler in the late 1970s and the two shared homes together in Okemos and Lansing’s West Side neighborhood. In addition to Sabo-Shuler, Fillingham was survived by her son, daughter, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren.
September 1, 1988 – May 13, 2020
Kody William VanGuilder of Midland, formerly of Bay City, earned his B.A. in psychology and philosophy from Eastern Michigan University in 2010. He held jobs at Tim Hortons and McDonald’s, as well as at the University of Michigan as a teaching assistant. In 2018, VanGuilder married Alex Sage, who survives him.
September 26, 1945 – September 4, 2020
Hailing from Texas, Carolyn Ann Van Cleave earned her Ph.D. in psychology from Ball State. She joined the faculty of Central Michigan University in 1978, working in the counseling center, and opened her own private practice in Mount Pleasant in the mid-1980s. Van Cleave and her partner Marsha Phillips were united in marriage in 2015.
February 13, 1938 – May 6, 2020
Born in Ohio, Karen Sue Johnston graduated from Saginaw High School in 1956 and earned her B.S. in biology from Albion College in 1960. After pursuing advanced degrees at Columbia and DePaul, she served as Director of Physical Therapy at Beaumont Hospital in Royal Oak from 1970 to 1996. Johnstone represented in the U.S. at four Paralympics Games. Her partner Dr. Jane C. Perrin survived her.
December 9, 1946 – October 21, 2020
Born in Memphis, Tennessee and raised by his mother in Detroit, Frederick Weston attended the High School of Commerce and went on to earn his Bachelor’s from Ferris State. In his 20s, he moved to New York, where he worked low-paying jobs while relishing the gay scene and creating an array of visual arts. A long-term survivor of AIDS, Weston gained recognition for his artistic genius only late in life.
April 4, 1941 – December 29, 2020
Evelyn Joseph Fisher attended the University Liggett School in Grosse Pointe Woods and earned her M.D. from the Wayne State University Medical School. As senior specialist for infectious disease at Henry Ford Hospital, Fisher saw her first patient with AIDS in 1982. A year later Fisher was instrumental in helping to found Wellness Networks to serve the needs of people with HIV in southeast Michigan.
January 21, 1929 – March 14, 2020
A native of Toledo, Ohio and graduate of Bowling Green State, Carmah Ann Lawler earned her MSW from the School of Social Work at the University of Michigan in 1954. She enjoyed a rich career, retiring from Jefferson County Public Schools in Colorado, and was also a longtime supporter of Old Lesbians Organizing for Change. Lawler was preceded in death by her life partner of 36 years Kathryn Glass.
January 17, 1947 – December 16, 2020
Lathrup Village resident Susan Catherine Brooks moved to Michigan from Pennsylvania in the 1970s. She earned her M.A. from Central Michigan, and worked for various Girl Scouts councils, the YWCA in Flint, and the YMCA in Detroit. Brooks was also involved in the early lesbian organization Moonrise and with Paws with a Cause. Her partners Martha Charles and Kathryn Wright preceded her in death.
No known obituary
May 27, 1949 – September 5, 2020
Sandra Lee Peckens of Harbor Springs was born in Ann Arbor and grew up in Otsego. She earned her B.A. in social work from Michigan State University in 1971 and went on for her MSW, also at MSU. Peckens career took her to hospitals in Metro Detroit and Northern Michigan Hospital in Petoskey. She and her longtime partner Sally Hood were united in a civil union in 2008 and legally married in 2010.
Michigan LGBTQ Remember 