Tag: LGBTQ history

Gerry Crane

Gerry Crane pic 2

August 25, 1964 – January 3, 1997

Mount Clemens native Gerald Mark “Gerry” Crane graduated from Mount Clemens High School and attended Grand Rapids Baptist College and Calvin College.  He taught high school music in Byron Center and was loved by his students, but officials hounded him from his job in 1996 when parents learned that he and his partner Randy Block held a commitment ceremony.  Crane died from a heart attack at age 32.

Between The Lines, February 1997

Michigan Radio segment on Private Love, Public School: Gay Teacher Under Fire

Yvonne Cushman

July 24, 1920 – February 12, 2008

Longtime Battle Creek resident Yvonne Phyllis Cushman graduated from Kalamazoo Central High School and was that city’s first female bus driver.  Her other jobs included working as a machinist in an electronics factory, operating a grocery, and caring for residents at Fort Custer State Home and the Muskegon Regional Facility.  A Harley rider in the 1950s, Cushman also owned and showed Great Danes.

Battle Creek Enquirer, February 14, 2008

Bill Ashley

Bill Ashley pic

June 20, 1961 – December 12, 1992

William Harrison Ashley graduated with the class of 1979 from Pontiac Central High School.  In 1983, Ashley was one of three partners who opened Chosen Books in its original location on McNichols in Detroit.  Ashley left the business in 1987 and moved to Ohio, later settling in Washington, DC.  He died from AIDS-related complications at age 31.

Cruise, February 3, 1993

Alice Anderson

Alice Anderson pic

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.

Holland Sentinel, June 21, 2019

James Brown II

James Brown II pic

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.

Between The Lines, March 7, 2019

Lisa Ortiz

Lisa Ortiz pic

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.

Ann Arbor News, February 28, 2019

Sean Sasser

Sean Sasser pic

October 25, 1968 – August 7, 2013

Detroit native Sean Franklin Sasser graduated from Cass Technical High School and attended the University of Chicago for a year.  He gained national celebrity a few years later as the HIV-positive AIDS educator boyfriend of Pedro Zamora on MTV’s The Real World in San Francisco.  Sasser went on to become a pastry chef and was survived by husband and longtime partner Michael Kaplan.

Washington Blade, August 8, 2013

CNN, August 8, 2013

Jacqueline Maurier

Jacqueline Maurier pic

October 3, 1970 – November 27, 2017

Jacqueline Maurier of Livonia earned her B.A. in psychology from the University of Michigan and an Associate degree from Henry Ford Community College.  She worked as a surgical technologist at Garden City Hospital and taught as a surgical instructor.  The mother of two, Maurier was survived by her significant other Cristi Dikeou.

Detroit Free Press, November 30, 2017

Griffin Funeral Home

Honey Lee Cottrell

Honey Lee Cottrell pic

January 16, 1946 – September 21, 2015

Born in Oregon, photographer and filmmaker Honey Lee Cottrell grew up in mid-Michigan and graduated in 1964 from Jackson High School.  She completed a year at Michigan State University before she found her vocation while working in a photo lab.  Cottrell subsequently moved to San Francisco, where she was employed with the union movement and became a pioneering creator of lesbian erotica.

Windy City Times, September 26, 2015

The Advocate, November 13, 2015

Honey Lee Cottrell Papers at Cornell University

Betsy Boyette

Betsy Boyette pic

July 21, 1930 – March 13, 2018

Betsy Ann Boyette was born in rural North Carolina and served as a radio operator in the U.S. Air Force during the Korean War before attending DeVry Technical Institute in Chicago as its first female graduate.  In the mid-1980s, she started her own interior decorator business, retiring to Saugatuck in 2002.  Boyette and her spouse Dianne Wendt were together 43 years and married in 2015.

Commercial Record, March 22, 2018