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.
May 28, 1925 – October 13, 1994
A resident of Indian Village in Detroit, Wendell Glynne Addington pursued racial justice in housing in two firms he founded, in helping establish the Michigan State Housing Development Authority, and through a lifetime of activism. A Dallas native, Addington served in the Pacific with the Army during World War II. He was also a longtime member of the leather community and a regular face at the Detroit Eagle.
February 27, 1967 – June 9, 2011
After graduating from Springport High School in 1986, Springfield resident Heidie Ann Speer went on to serve in the U.S. Army. From elementary and high school into adulthood, she played on several softball teams, helping to take one to the league championship. In later years, Speer was employed as a cook at Centennial House restaurant. She was survived by two sons and Angie Graham, her former life partner.
November 19, 1936 – April 29, 2021
Klaus Reich, better known to gay Metro Detroiters by Tony Rome, was born in Berlin, Germany and immigrated to the U.S. in the mid-1950s. After serving in the U.S. Air Force, he began an aircraft servicing business in Ypsilanti. He later operated Foof’s Down Under downstairs at Gigi’s nightclub in Detroit. From 1979 to 1999, Rome published Cruise magazine before retiring to warmer climates.
June 1, 1934 – March 20, 2986
Wilbert Delos “Hank” George attended North Branch High School in North Branch and worked on the assembly line at AC Spark Plug in Flint before serving in the U.S. Army from 1956 to 1958. Following his time in the military, he was employed in maintenance for the State of Michigan in Flint and Lapeer. George was a familiar presence at the State Bar and in the local gay community.
Flint Journal, March 21, 1986
July 7, 1940 – October 20, 2008
Nona Diane McKenna of Dexter was born in the Upper Peninsula town of Hermansville, graduated from Roosevelt High School in Ypsilanti, earned her B.A. in physical education from Eastern Michigan University, and served in the U.S. Marines from 1961 to 1966. In 1991, she and Sally Johnson became the first same-sex couple to register as domestic partners. They married in California in 2008.
April 16, 1919 – April 19, 1995
Cleveland, Ohio native Ralph Anthony O’Reilly served as a Navy lieutenant in the Pacific during World War II and later landed in Detroit where he was employed as an engineer with General Motors and met his life partner of 43 years Ralph Stallings. The couple moved to Davisburg in the early 1960s and operated a Japanese bonsai nursery until they retired to southern California.
Times-Advocate, April 25, 1995
March 11, 1910 – February 8, 1994
World War II vet Ralph Thompson Stallings began working as a bellhop while attending Saginaw High School and rose in the ranks of hotels in Flint and Detroit. He met his life partner Ralph O’Reilly at a bridge party when neither played bridge. They soon shared an apartment in Detroit and later a home in Davisburg, where they raised Japanese bonsai before moving to Escondido, California in the early 1980s.
Times-Advocate, February 11, 1994
January 1, 1921 – May 14, 1997
Indian Village homeowner Andrew “Andy” Karagas was the son of Greek and Italian immigrants and served in the Pacific during World War II. Brother to Woodward Lounge owner William Karagas, he served as the nighttime host there for more than 40 years and was active in the Detroit Bar Guild. Generations of customers recalled Karagas booming bar “Tonight’s the Night!” as he strolled the bar.
Detroit Free Press, May 19, 1997
April 24, 1928 – May 22, 2020
Jerry Abraham Moore grew up in Detroit, graduated from Redford High School, and attended Wayne State before being drafted into the U.S. Army in 1950. Following his military service he became immersed in Detroit’s gay bar scene and from 1958 to 1960 served as secretary of the short-lived Detroit Area Council of the Mattachine Society, the first ever formal homosexual organization in Michigan.
Michigan LGBTQ Remember 