August 4, 1977 – December 3, 2021
Jamie Louise Bissell grew up and attended college in Indiana. After earning her J.D. at Valparaiso University in 2005, she moved to Michigan where she first lived in Trenton and worked in law firms. She later moved to Livonia and took a job with the Wayne County Friend of the Court. She also served as president of her union local. Bissell was survived by two children and her wife Molly Pastori-Bissell.
October 26, 1966 – December 21, 2007
Born in Los Angeles, Kurt Andrew Tamm went to Bentley High School in Livonia. He later tended bar at Backstreet in Detroit and Cobalt in Ferndale. In his last years, Tamm made a home in Puerto Rico. He died from AIDS-related complications at age 41.
January 5, 1946 – February 27, 1991
Garden City native Robert Joel Crane graduated from Cody High School in Detroit and earned his B.A. in art education at Eastern Michigan University. He went on to teach at the elementary level in the Southfield Public Schools. Crane and his lover James Anderson shared a home in Livonia. He died from AIDS-related complications at age 45.
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.
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.
July 28, 1931 – October 28, 2006
Shirley Ann Weaver, formerly of Livonia, was born in Detroit and met her loving companion Barbara Sowers in the early 1960s. Weaver retired as a public school teacher and counselor in 1989 and relocated with Sowers to Port Charlotte, Florida.
May 4, 1932 – October 19, 2012
In 1953 and 1954 Barbara Jean “Barb” Sowers played outfrield with Muskegon Belles and the Grand Rapids Chicks in the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League. Born in Detroit, she grew up in Livonia and retired as a high school counselor with the Livonia schools, where she headed the teachers’ union in the mid-1970s. Sowers was preceded in death by Shirley Weaver, her companion of 45 years.
March 23, 1932 – February 27, 2005
Marlene Kutz grew up in Dearborn and later resided in Livonia and Harrison Township. A subscriber to the Ladder in the early 1970s and supporter of the Forum Foundation in the 1990s, Kutz was also a sister in the Catholic Church.
February 8, 1952 – February 15, 1993
Born in Dearborn, Dan-Michael Vigliarolo grew up in Livonia where he graduated from Franklin High School. After studying at Michigan State University, he ran a beauty parlor on Detroit’s West Side before moving to Kew West. Upon returning to Michigan, Vigliarolo became involved in Friends Alliance and worked as managing editor for Metra. He died from AIDS-related complications at age 41.
September 12, 1945 – May 24, 2008
A Detroit native and a 1964 graduate of Livonia Bentley High School, Nancy Fitzgerald earned her Associate’s degree from Lansing Community College and her B.S. from Spring Arbor College in 1998. She worked as an LPN and held a number of management positions in health care and insurance. An avid motorcyclist, Fitzgerald and her partner Lisa Whitehead shared a home in Eaton Rapids.
Lesbian Connection, September/October 2008
Michigan LGBTQ Remember 