Category: In Memoriam

Mart Crowley, the Tony-winning playwright of The Boys in the Band dies at 84

Posted on by Jim Collins

A playwright and screenwriter, Crowley is best known for creating the first mainstream portrayal of gay men in Boys in the Band, which is being released later this year as a Netflix film. https://www.broadway.com/buzz/198715/mart-crowley-tony-winning-playwright-of-the-boys-in-the-band-is-dead-at-84/ https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-news/playwright-mart-crowley-boys-in-the-band-dead-84-964742/ You can watch a 2009 Theatre Talk interview with Crowley here: https://tv.cuny.edu/show/theatertalk/PR1010888

Allee Willis, Hall of Fame songwriter and beloved L.A. eclectic, dead at 72

Posted on by elissa mondschein

Willis was inducted last year into the Songwriters Hall of Fame for her decades of work crafting songs that stretched from pop and rock to R&B and soul and were recorded by myriad artists also including Ray Charles, Sister Sledge, Bonnie Raitt, Bryan Adams and Pet Shop Boys. https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/music/story/2019-12-26/allee-willis-obituary-friends-remember-songwriter

Noted Publisher and Editor Bill Cohen has Died

Posted on by elissa mondschein

An early steward of LGBTQ studies and queer academic inquiry, Cohen is known for co-founding (along with Patrick Mcloughlin) the highly regarded Haworth Press, a publishing venture that specialized in producing scholarly journals and trade books. https://www.lambdaliterary.org/features/rem/12/14/noted-publisher-and-editor-bill-cohen-has-died/

Gay Comic Artist Howard Cruse, Creator of ‘Wendel,’ Dies at 75

Posted on by Jim Collins

Acclaimed gay cartoonist Howard Cruse, whose strip “Wendel” graced the pages of The Advocatein the 1980s, died of cancer November 26 in North Adams, Mass., surrounded by friends and family, his daughter, Kimberly Kolze Venter, announced on Facebook. He was 75. https://www.advocate.com/people/2019/12/03/gay-comic-artist-howard-cruse-creator-wendel-dies-75

Daniel C. Cochran died on December 1, 2019 at the age of 73. Dan was a ground-breaking pioneer for African- Americans and gay people on Wall Street

Posted on by elissa mondschein

Dan is survived by his spouse, Greg Sutphin, his beloved companion of over fifty years. Dan was also involved in major fundraising efforts for the Human Rights Campaign and for Lamba Legal https://www.legacy.com/obituaries/nytimes/obituary.aspx?n=daniel-cochran&pid=194628525

Puerto Rican Astrologer Walter Mercado Dies at 87

Posted on by elissa mondschein

Walter Mercado was known and loved in the US and Latin America for his astrology readings and predictions.  He first became well known in Puerto Rico as an actor and dancer and moved to South Florida in the early 1990s.  There, he joined Univision and began a new career with new fame, delivering horoscopes, always […]

Lee Bennet Hopkins, 81, Poet With a Mission to Inspire Children

Posted on by elissa mondschein

Lee Bennett Hopkins, passionate educator and prolific children’s poet and anthologist, died on August 8 in Cape Coral, Fla., following a hospitalization for COPD. He was 81. Many of Hopkins’s books have been celebrated over the years with distinctions and awards from the American Library Association, the International Reading Association, and the National Council of […]