July 27, 1926 – November 4, 1993
Doris Louise “Sadie” Satterfield played outfield for the Grand Rapids Chicks from 1947 to 1953 with the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League. She and teammate Connie Wisniewski operated Chicks Dugout hamburger restaurant for several years. Satterfield later worked as a nurse at Kent Oaks Hospital and shared a home in Alto with her companion Wilhelmina Moederzoon, who survived her.
Grand Rapids Press, November 5, 1993
July 1, 1948 – October 5, 2007
Longtime Birmingham and Royal Oak resident Deborah Ann Brown was born in Pontiac and graduated from Oxford Academy in Oxford. She later operated her own lawn service business and was employed for many years as a secretary and as a certified medical assistant at St. Joseph Mercy Hospital in Pontiac. Brown was survived by her partner Jill Calvin.
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.
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.
October 1, 1956 – July 2, 2021
Born in Flint, Denis Christopher-Ryan graduated from Southwestern High School in 1974. He held retail and bank jobs before working at Genesee County Mental Health, where he retired after 20 years of service. In the mid-1990s, he served as a DJ at the short-lived gay nightclub Studio 910. Christopher-Ryan moved to Las Vegas in 2001 and held a second career in the hospitality industry.
November 29, 1957 – January 23, 2011
Royal Oak resident Diane Helen Collins graduated with the class of 1975 from Capac High School and went on to serve in the U.S. Navy. She worked as a dental assistant was a member of the Metropolitan Community Church of Detroit. Collins was survived by her son.
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.
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.
February 2, 1968 – January 1, 2022
Damon Michael Williams was born in Flint and graduated with the class of 1986 from Grand Blanc High School. He relocated to Columbus where he attended Ohio State University. At the time of his death, Williams worked as Educational Coordinator for OhioHealth. He was preceded in death by his mother. Survivors included his father, his siblings, and his boyfriend Ricky.
August 2, 1882 – March 25, 1959
Frederick Arthur Flett was born in Petrolia, Ontario and immigrated to the U.S. in 1900. He earned his dental degree from the Detroit College of Medicine and practiced dentistry for the next 50 years. Flett was the sole participant whose identity is known of an unsuccessful attempt to launch an affiliate of the Mattachine Society in Detroit in 1954, four years before a local chapter was finally established.
No known obituary
Michigan LGBTQ Remember 