Helen Stephens & Mabel Robbe

Helen Herring Stephens (February 3, 1918 – January 17, 1994) was an American athlete, a double Olympic champion in 1936. Helen Herring Stephens lived in Florissant, Missouri with her partner of 41 years, Mabel Robbe, until Robbe's death in 1986. At the 1936 Olympics it was suggested that Stephens and her 100 metres rival Stella Walsh, who had both X0 and XY chromosomes, were in fact male. The Olympics committee performed a physical check on Stephens and concluded that she was a woman. (P: Helen Stephens still running in 1986, at 68)

Stephens, nicknamed the "Fulton Flash" after her birthplace Fulton, Missouri, was a strong athlete in sprint events - she never lost a race in her entire career - but also in weight events like the shot put and discus throw, and she won national titles in both categories of events.

Aged only 18, Stephens was sent out to the 1936 Summer Olympics. There, she won the 100 m final, beating reigning champion and reigning world record holder Stanisława Walasiewicz of Poland (at autopsy, it was discovered that Walsh had both male and female sex organs). Her time of 11.5 s was below the world record, but was not recognised because a strong tailwind was present at the time of the race. Next, Stephens anchored the American 4 x 100 m relay team that won the Olympic title after the leading German team dropped its baton.

Stephens retired from athletics shortly after the Games and played some professional baseball and softball. She attended William Woods University, Fulton High School, and Middle River School in Fulton. From 1938 to 1952, she was the owner and manager of her own semi-professional basketball team. She was employed for many years in the Research Division of the U.S. Aeronautical Chart and Information Service (later, a part of the Defense Mapping Agency) in St. Louis, Missouri.


with Jesse Owens
Helen Herring Stephens (February 3, 1918 – January 17, 1994) was an American athlete, a double Olympic champion in 1936. Helen Herring Stephens lived in Florissant, Missouri with her partner of 41 years, Mabel Robbe, until Robbe's death in 1986. At the 1936 Olympics it was suggested that Stephens and her 100 metres rival Stella Walsh, who had both X0 and XY chromosomes, were in fact male. The Olympics committee performed a physical check on Stephens and concluded that she was a woman.

( Read more... )

Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helen_Stephens & www.albemarle-callaway.com/surnames/getperson.php

Days of Love: Celebrating LGBT History One Story at a Time by Elisa Rolle
Paperback: 760 pages
Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform; 1 edition (July 1, 2014)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1500563323
ISBN-13: 978-1500563325
CreateSpace Store: https://www.createspace.com/4910282
Amazon (Paperback): http://www.amazon.com/dp/1500563323/?tag=elimyrevandra-20
Amazon (Kindle): http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00MZG0VHY/?tag=elimyrevandra-20

Days of Love chronicles more than 700 LGBT couples throughout history, spanning 2000 years from Alexander the Great to the most recent winner of a Lambda Literary Award. Many of the contemporary couples share their stories on how they met and fell in love, as well as photos from when they married or of their families. Included are professional portraits by Robert Giard and Stathis Orphanos, paintings by John Singer Sargent and Giovanni Boldini, and photographs by Frances Benjamin Johnson, Arnold Genthe, and Carl Van Vechten among others. “It's wonderful. Laying it out chronologically is inspired, offering a solid GLBT history. I kept learning things. I love the decision to include couples broken by death. It makes clear how important love is, as well as showing what people have been through. The layout and photos look terrific.” Christopher Bram “I couldn’t resist clicking through every page. I never realized the scope of the book would cover centuries! I know that it will be hugely validating to young, newly-emerging LGBT kids and be reassured that they really can have a secure, respected place in the world as their futures unfold.” Howard Cruse “This international history-and-photo book, featuring 100s of detailed bios of some of the most forward-moving gay persons in history, is sure to be one of those bestsellers that gay folk will enjoy for years to come as reference and research that is filled with facts and fun.” Jack Fritscher

Kelsey Pharr & Mabel Mercer

Kelsey L. Pharr Jr., son of Miami's prominent retired mortician, died on April 20, 1961 at St. Francis Hospital, Honolulu, Hawaii, following a long illness. (P: Publicity photo of the vocal group the Delta Rhythm Boys for their appearance at the annual Puyallup (Washington) Daffodil Festival Flower Show., Kelsey Pharr is bottom-left)

A native of Miami, young Pharr established himself as a distinguished international entertainer, and was a big favorite in America and European theatrical circles.

Pharr first attended school at Mrs. Carrie Anderson's Kindergarten. Later he attended Dunbar High School in Washington, D.C. Among other accomplishments while at Dunbar he held the rank of Colonel of the cadet corps, and graduated as the valedictorian of his class.

From high school he entered Northwestern University where he was the first Negro to appear in the University's dramatic production. He also appeared in a number of other dramatic productions in Chicago, and later went on Broadway as a member of the famous "Porgy and Bess" cast.

Pharr left "Porgy and Bess" to join the internationally famous quartet, the Delta Rhythm Boys, where he established an enviable record. The quartet appeared mostly in Europe and later went to Japan, Hawaii and other points in the far east, in addition to a series of appearances in various parts of the United States. The Delta Rhythm Boys were among some of the first Negro groups to appear in Miami Beach. While in Sweden, Pharr me and became a personal friend of Ingemar Johansson.

( Read more... )

Mabel Mercer (3 February 1900 – 20 April 1984) was an English-born cabaret singer who performed in the United States, Britain, and Europe with the greats in jazz and cabaret. She was a featured performer at Chez Bricktop in Paris, owned by the hostess Bricktop, and performed in such clubs as Le Ruban Bleu, Tony's, the RSVP, the Carlyle, the St. Regis Hotel, and eventually her own room, the Byline Club. Among those who frequently attended Mercer's shows was Frank Sinatra, who made no secret of his emulating her phrasing and story-telling techniques.

Mercer was born in Burton upon Trent, Staffordshire, England. Her mother was a young, white English music hall performer, and her father was a black American jazz musician whom Mabel never knew. At age fourteen, she left her convent school in Manchester, and toured Britain and Europe with her aunt in vaudeville and music hall engagements.

In 1928, she was an unknown member of the black chorus in the London production of Show Boat, but she had become the toast of Paris by the 1930s, with admirers who included Ernest Hemingway, Gertrude Stein, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and Cole Porter.

When World War II broke out, she traveled to America to sing in the finest supper clubs in New York City. Her recording career began in 1942, with an album of selections from Porgy and Bess on the elite Liberty Music Shops label, featuring piano accompaniment by Cy Walter. Over the following decades, Mercer made many concert appearances across the U.S. In the late 1960s, she gave two concerts with Bobby Short at Town Hall in New York City. Both were released by Atlantic Records: Mabel Mercer & Bobby Short at Town Hall, in 1968, (Atlantic SD 2-604) and Mabel Mercer & Bobby Short Second Town Hall Concert, in 1969 (Atlantic SD 2-605). In 1969, she made two appearances on the television program Mister Rogers' Neighborhood.

( Read more... )

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mabel_Mercer

Days of Love: Celebrating LGBT History One Story at a Time by Elisa Rolle
Paperback: 760 pages
Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform; 1 edition (July 1, 2014)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1500563323
ISBN-13: 978-1500563325
CreateSpace Store: https://www.createspace.com/4910282
Amazon (Paperback): http://www.amazon.com/dp/1500563323/?tag=elimyrevandra-20
Amazon (Kindle): http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00MZG0VHY/?tag=elimyrevandra-20

Days of Love chronicles more than 700 LGBT couples throughout history, spanning 2000 years from Alexander the Great to the most recent winner of a Lambda Literary Award. Many of the contemporary couples share their stories on how they met and fell in love, as well as photos from when they married or of their families. Included are professional portraits by Robert Giard and Stathis Orphanos, paintings by John Singer Sargent and Giovanni Boldini, and photographs by Frances Benjamin Johnson, Arnold Genthe, and Carl Van Vechten among others. “It's wonderful. Laying it out chronologically is inspired, offering a solid GLBT history. I kept learning things. I love the decision to include couples broken by death. It makes clear how important love is, as well as showing what people have been through. The layout and photos look terrific.” Christopher Bram “I couldn’t resist clicking through every page. I never realized the scope of the book would cover centuries! I know that it will be hugely validating to young, newly-emerging LGBT kids and be reassured that they really can have a secure, respected place in the world as their futures unfold.” Howard Cruse “This international history-and-photo book, featuring 100s of detailed bios of some of the most forward-moving gay persons in history, is sure to be one of those bestsellers that gay folk will enjoy for years to come as reference and research that is filled with facts and fun.” Jack Fritscher

Sam D'Allesandro (April 3, 1956 – February 3, 1988)

Sam D’Allesandro (born Richard Anderson) (April 3, 1956 – February 3, 1988) was an American writer and poet. He studied at the University of California, Santa Cruz, and came to San Francisco as a young man in the early 1980s and published a book of elegant lyrics, Slippery Sins.

D'Allesandro was a member of the so-called "New Narrative" writers, which included Robert Glück, Bruce Boone, Steve Abbott and others. He reached out to other like-minded writers and contacted Dennis Cooper, Kathy Acker, Benjamin Weissman, David Trinidad, and Dodie Bellamy. With Bellamy he began an epistolary collaboration she was later to publish as Real: The Letters of Mina Harker and Sam D’Allesandro. A gay man, D'Allesandro died of AIDS in 1988, aged 31, leaving behind a body of work that ranges across various genre identities, from stories of one paragraph to fully developed novellas. He is also the author of The Wild Creatures, which was published posthumously in 2005, edited by Bellamy's husband Kevin Killian.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sam_D%27Allesandro

Sam D'Allesandro wrote a bunch of poems, sketches and short stories and then died just as he was starting to get them published. His powerfully written, humorous and sexy stories (many set in San Francisco) were first collected as The Zombie Pit, which went out of print for years, until The Wild Creatures: Collected Stories of Sam D'Allesandro edited by Kevin Killian volume was published in 2005. His stories seem so frank and vulnerable, even though he sometimes poses as a tough guy. One of the most memorable is an homage to James Baldwin, “Giovanni’s Apartment,” in which a casual street pick up leads to an obsessive affair. The narrator drops out of his life and stays in the apartment of his lover for weeks, and you feel like you’re inside that apartment with him, so saturated with this new love that you don’t want to venture out again. Related reading: anything by Kevin Killian—who edited this volume, was a friend and contemporary of D'Allesandro, and shares his romantic/trashy/hopeful/fantastic sensibility. --K.M. Soehnlein

( Sam D'Allesandro, 1988, by Robert Giard )

( Further Readings )

More Particular Voices at my website: http://www.elisarolle.com/, My Ramblings/Particular Voices

Blog Tour: Artistic Endeavor by Whitley Gray

Artistic Endeavor by Whitley Gray
Publisher: WGP (January 7, 2015)
Amazon Kindle: Artistic Endeavor

When friends ask one-night stand connoisseur Michael Esteban to introduce college professor and virgin Cobey Miller to the joys of sex, Michael balks. Lust is his thing, not leading a twenty-five year old novice. But shy Cobey has problems meeting men, and their introduction fuels Michael’s decision to help Cobey become a gay-sex-loving guy. It’ll all be fun and games—unless someone falls in love.

( EXCERPT )

WHITLEY GRAY’S BIO: Once upon a misspent youth, Whitley read and wrote stories under the covers at night. At some point, real life intervened, bringing with it responsibilities and a career in the medical field. After years of technical writing, Whitley became enamored of romance and took on the challenge of giving it a try. Inventing characters and putting them through paces in interesting ways turned out to be addictive, and along the way, Whitley discovered having two heroes is twice as nice. A pot of coffee, quiet, and a storyline featuring a couple of guys makes for a perfect day.

LINKS:
Website: Stop by www.whitleygray.com and feed your fix for heat between the sheets with erotica and M/M romance.
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/whitley.gray
Blog: www.whitleygray.blogspot.com
Twitter: https://twitter.com/whitleygray

Giveaway Details:
• 1 Winner will take away a $20 Amazon Gift Card.
• 3 Winners will get a free e-copy of “Artistic Endeavor” each.
Link: a Rafflecopter giveaway

David Combs & Randy Wicker

Randolfe Hayden "Randy" Wicker (b. Charles Gervin Hayden, Jr. 3 February 1938) is an American author, activist and blogger. After involvement in the early homophile and gay liberation movements, Wicker became active around the issue of human cloning.

Wicker was born Charles Gervin Hayden, Jr. in Plainfield, New Jersey in 1938. He was raised in Florida by his grandparents. His first exposure to the homophile movement came while he was a student at the University of Texas at Austin in the mid-1950s, when he discovered a copy of the ONE, Inc. magazine One. Wicker affiliated himself with the New York City chapter of the homophile Mattachine Society (MSNY) in 1958, while still a UTA student, spending the summer in the city to work with the organization. Mattachine took a conservative stance in its work for homosexual rights and Wicker, who was younger than the leadership and many of the other members, joined with other younger activists like Craig Rodwell in an effort to make the group more radical. "He was, let's say, a disturbing acquisition for the movement", recalled then-MSNY president Arthur Maule. After convincing MSNY that it should begin publicizing its events, Wicker printed up flyers for an upcoming lecture, leading to a standing-room-only crowd. It also led police to persuade MSNY's landlord to evict the group from its recently-occupied headquarters.

As he became more active in the movement, Wicker apprised his family of his activities. Hayden, Sr., while skeptical that his activities would amount to anything, asked him not to use "Charles Hayden" for his activism. He adopted the pseudonym "Randolfe Hayden Wicker", retaining his family name as his new middle name to maintain the family connection. He legally changed his name in 1967.


Peter Ogren, Prescott Townsend, Tom Doerr, Mark Golderman, and Randy Wicker in Sheep Meadow by Kay Tobin Lahusen (1970)


Randolfe Wicker and David Combs (with family) in photo sent out announcing their union, 1972
Randy Wicker became involved with the great love of his life, a beautiful feminine little queen, David Combs. In 1972, they had an informal wedding ceremony in the Brooklyn Botanical Garden's “Garden for the Blind”. Wicker leased a small shop in West Village, at 506 Hudson Street, where he remained for the following 29 years. Wicker and Combs had a stormy 18-year relationship during which they sometime parted company. On January 27, 1990, they had a more “official” deathbed wedding.

( Read more... )

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Randy_Wicker

( Randy Wicker at Uplift Lighting, 1991, by Robert Giard )

( Further Readings )

More Particular Voices at my website: http://www.elisarolle.com/, My Ramblings/Particular Voices

More LGBT Couples at my website: http://www.elisarolle.com/, My Ramblings/Real Life Romance