May 15, 1944 – December 6, 2020
Pontiac native Barbara Jean Ziegler of Waterford attended Michigan State and Wayne State University and earned her Master’s at Oakland University. She taught every grade from K through 8th in the Pontiac schools and later became an elementary and junior high principal. After a heterosexual marriage and raising her family, Ziegler united with her life partner Jo Nebeker, who survived her.
May 22, 1940 – March 29, 2014
White Lake resident Reginal Lewis “Reggie” Doyon graduated from St. Frederick High School in Pontiac and worked at Pontiac Motors. Following his retirement from the plant, he purchased Club Flamingo and after a year began operating the bar as a gay establishment. In 1998, the city selected Doyon for its Business Beautification of the Year. He continued to run the bar for another decade.
April 3, 1962 – October 19, 1989
Daniel Patrick “Danny” Lightcap was born in Pontiac and was active in the drama club at Pontiac Northern High School, where he graduated with the class of 1980. Lightcap worked a waiter at the Woodward Lounge in Detroit and at the time of his passing was pursuing a B.A. in creative writing at Wayne State. He died from AIDS-related complications at age 27.
September 21, 1963 – March 22, 1994
Born in Pontiac, Scott Russell Sweeney of Bloomfield Hills earned his bachelor’s in communications from Michigan State University in 1985 and later pursued studies at the University of London in the UK. Sweeney enjoyed a rich career as a public affairs manager within the auto industry, overseeing the rollout of the Ford Mustang and the F150 Lightning. He died from AIDS-related complications at age 30.
Detroit Free Press, March 24, 1994
August 12, 1958 – July 25, 2016
Theresa Mary Guillean of Bloomfield Hills graduated with the Pontiac Catholic High School class of 1976. She went on to earn her B.S. in 1990 from Oakland University and devoted herself to social work. Guillean and her wife Lori Klein Shapiro were among more than 300 couples issued marriage licenses on March 22, 2014 after a federal judge overturned Michigan’s ban on same-sex marriage.
March 24, 1965 – November 21, 1995
Warren resident Charles Petty grew up around Waterford and Pontiac and graduated with the class of 1983 from Lake Orion High School. He was a bartender at the Woodward and the Other Side, as well as a dancer at the Gold Coast. Petty later handled maintenance at the TNT Health Club and his lover was Danny Potter. He died from AIDS-related complications at age 30
September 16, 1954 – February 23. 2019
Jeri Shupe of Pontiac grew up in Taylor and graduated with the class of 1972 from Taylor High School. She worked variously as a ballroom dance instructor, a law office manager, and a licensed cosmetologist. Shupe was active in the Flint-area group Transgender Connect and in 2016, according to her obituary, transitioned from male to female. Her life partner Diane Morin survived her.
September 18, 1963 – April 3, 2020
Growing up in the 1970s, Ellen Marie Rogowski of Holly was the first girl to play in a boys’ baseball league in Royal Oak. She earned her B.A. and M.A. from Oakland University and taught middle school in Pontiac and English at Henry Ford Community College and Lewis College of Business. She was also an accomplished musician, releasing three albums. She and Rosemary Jozwiak shared 30 years together.
January 26, 1963 – March 9, 1995
Scott Bernard Amedure moved to Waterford from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania when he was five, left high school at 17 to join the U.S. Army, and later worked as a bartender at Popper’s in Pontiac. In March 1995, two days after Amedure revealed his secret crush on his straight acquaintance Jonathan Schmitz during a taping of the Jenny Jones Show, Schmitz murdered him in his Orion Township mobile home.
January 20, 1957 – November 18, 1999
Pontiac resident Kraig Marlon Knorr was born in Alpena and attended Hillman Community High School. He served in the U.S. Navy from 1977 to 1979 and later earned his B.A. at the University of Michigan-Flint, where he worked as a tutor in the writing center. In the 1990s, Knorr worked as DJ at the State Bar in Flint and at Popper’s in Pontiac.
Alpena News, November 21, 1999
Michigan LGBTQ Remember 