January 16, 1935 – June 2, 2006
Marilyn Kay Ramm of Auburn was a graduate with the class of 1953 of Bay City Central High School. She received her nursing degree from Harper Hospital in Detroit and earned her Master’s at Wayne State University. Ramm and her partner Suzanne Slaughter were together for 35 years.
January 2, 1897 – October 11, 1964
Harold Clement Auer was born in Cadillac. In 1921, while working as a writer for the Detroit Free Press, he wrote a fan letter to famed British author Edward Carpenter, correspondence later included in Jonathan Ned Katz’s 1983 book Gay/Lesbian Almanac. Auer spent the last 20 years of his life in the Eloise Psychiatric Hospital in Westland, later known as Wayne County General Hospital and Infirmary.
No known obituary
May 28, 1925 – October 13, 1994
A resident of Indian Village in Detroit, Wendell Glynne Addington pursued racial justice in housing in two firms he founded, in helping establish the Michigan State Housing Development Authority, and through a lifetime of activism. A Dallas native, Addington served in the Pacific with the Army during World War II. He was also a longtime member of the leather community and a regular face at the Detroit Eagle.
September 8, 1950 – April 5, 2019
Ecorse resident and beloved Chippewa and Pottawatomi artisan James Aquash was born into the Walpole Island First Nation in Ontario, Canada. In the early 1970s, he became involved with the gay liberation movement on the Wayne State University campus. As a longtime member of the local Native community, Aquash was noted for presenting his beadwork and basket weaving at area pow wows.
April 2, 1949 – April 9, 2022
Artist, educator, Detroit native, and Royal Oak resident Monica Mary Molinaro graduated from Troy High School in 1967. She later attended the College for Creative Studies and earned a graduate degree at Cranbrook Academy of Art in 1983. Her paintings and collages were showcased at such venues as Cade Gallery, CCS, Gallery 911, Flip, and posthumously as part of the Mighty Real/Queer Detroit exhibit.
October 16, 1927 – January 13, 1995
Detroit native Raymond Edward “Ray” Johnson graduated from Cass Tech High School and took art classes at the Ox-Bow School in Saugatuck. He later studied at Black Mountain College in North Carolina before moving to New York City in the late 1940s. Johnson became an acclaimed collagist and performance artist. He relocated to Long Island at age 41 and ended his life at age 67.
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.
March 2, 1925 – March 21, 1986
A 1944 graduate of Southeastern High School in Detroit, potter and sculptor Margaret Elizabeth “Peggy” Sauer earned her BFA at Cranbrook Academy and her Masters at Wayne State. As one of the pioneering “Damsels of Design,” she worked as a designer of automobile interiors for General Motors from 1955 to 1962. Sauer later taught and shared a home in Harper Woods with her partner Julie Sabit.
Detroit Free Press, March 24, 1986
September 19, 1938 – September 10, 1998
Walter Leroy Brown of Erie, formerly of Southgate, grew up in Ohio and as an employee of National Amusement later worked as a manager of cinemas in Ann Arbor and Detroit. In the mid-1960s, he served as “mother of the bride” for a same-sex wedding held at the Park Lane Apartments across from the Diplomat Lounge in Detroit. Brown died during heart surgery at age 59.
Monroe Evening News, September 12, 1998
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
Michigan LGBTQ Remember 