December 13, 1931 – July 1, 2021
Born in Saginaw, Joyce Elaine Hillert graduated with the class of 1950 from Saginaw High School and went on to attend Western Michigan University and Michigan State University. Her work life included serving mentally challenged people, a stint as a secretary, and owning and operating the Waterford Resale Shop. Hillert was preceded in death by her companion and life partner Clarice Jeffries.
February 3, 1938 – December 31, 2022
Violet Betty “Vy” Reed graduated with the class of 1955 from Dearborn High School. She pursued a career in education, earning her B.A. from Western Michigan University and M.A. from Michigan State, then working as a teacher and counselor in Roseville. She found community in the 1960s at Fred’s Bar and later as a member and facilitator of Silver Foxes and the Senior Koffee Klatch at Affirmations.
August 22, 1995 – December 11, 2021
Former Plymouth resident Suraj Mathew Mahadeva studied neuroscience and dance at Michigan State University, where he decried cultural appropriation. After earning his Bachelor’s in 2018, he moved to Chicago and became a medical clinician. Active in Asian and LGBTQ communities, Mahadeva was shot and killed on the porch of a friend’s home by an unknown assailant.
May 9, 1901 – April 6, 1968
Alma Minna Goetsch was born in Milwaukee and studied at the Art Institute of Chicago before moving to East Lansing, where she taught as an art professor at Michigan State University for 37 years. In the late 1930s, Goetsch and her partner Kathrine Winckler commissioned famed architect Frank Lloyd Wright to design a home for them in Okemos. The couple moved to Arkansas upon retiring in 1965.
Lansing State Journal, April 8, 1968
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
June 26, 1947 – December 7, 2010
Michael David Scott was born in Lansing and graduated from Central High School in Kalamazoo in 1966. He later worked as a chef in Lansing and at Michigan State University. Scott was a noted local drag performer and in June 1972 won the Miss Capital City title at a pageant held at Joe Covello’s. Days later he led the first-ever Pride parade down Woodward in Detroit and sang at the rally in Kennedy Square.
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.
July 23, 1954 – June 13, 2021
Mary Catherine Linton was valedictorian of the class of 1972 at Bullock Creek High School in Midland, earned her B.S. from Michigan State, Master’s from Michigan Tech, and Ph.D. from the University of Kentucky. She devoted her life to science and poetry, specializing in wetlands, and served an associate professor at the University of Wisconsin. Linton was survived by her wife and partner Kathy Kauffman.
September 15, 1963 – December 16, 2007
Lansing native James Michael Nickoff was kicked out of his home at age 15. He survived on dishwashing jobs and worked his way through college, earning his B.A. in accounting at Michigan State, where he was active in the Lesbian-Gay Council. After he moved to San Francisco, he served on the founding board of Equality California and married his partner Dave Lawson in 2004. Nickoff took his own life at age 44.
October 15, 1918 – April 28, 1994
Ruth Evelyn Sanders moved from Texas to Michigan in the early 1940s to pursue her doctorate at Michigan State University. After earning her Ph.D. in 1947, she taught microbiology at MSU as a lecturer, assistant professor, and associate professor, retiring in 1982. Sanders shared a home in Okemos for many decades with her longtime companion Lucile Portwood.
Lansing State Journal, May 1, 1994
Michigan LGBTQ Remember 