obituaries
Obituary: Ebony Beard, dental assistant, 34
Ebony Beard, a dental assistant and mother of two, was killed in an automobile accident May 21. She was 34. Beard is a native of Philadelphia who was most recently living in Delaware County. She g...
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Pioneering LGBT activist Dr. Walter Lear, 87
Dr. Walter Lear, one of Philadelphia’s most renowned LGBT leaders and the region’s first out public official, died May 29. He was 87. Lear had been in Keystone Hospice and died from kidney failu...
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Obituary: Deforia "Rick" Britt, 49
AIDS activist Deforia “Rick” Britt died May 4 from lymphoma. Five days later, he would have been 50. The Philadelphia native was born May 9, 1960, and attended elementary school here until he mo...
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REV. CHRIS PAULES Obituary: The Rev. Christine Paules, 53
The Rev. Christine Paules, an openly lesbian pastor who served several congregations in Philadelphia, died March 31 at Bryn Mawr Hospital after a battle with breast cancer. She was 53. At the time...
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Howard Deck, pioneering and beloved union leader, 70
Howard Deck, a pioneering labor-union leader, died Feb. 15 of a heart attack. He was 70. Deck, a native of Reading, began the first union for employees of the University of Pennsylvania libraries ...
6 months ago | 0 0 comments | 3 3 recommendations | email to a friend
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Norman Baker, HIV/AIDS activist, 58
Norman Baker, a longtime HIV / AIDS activist who volunteered for several local HIV / AIDS organizations, died Jan. 6 at age 58. Baker was a former resident of Coatesville, and had been living ...
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Gemencina Reed, founding Attic board member, 79
by Jen Colletta
7 months ago | 0 0 comments | 7 7 recommendations | email to a friend
Gemencina Reed, one of The Attic Youth Center’s earliest supporters, died Jan. 9 of organ failure. She was 79. Reed, an LGBT ally, was one of the founding board members of the LGBT youth agency du...
Sterling Goode, Attic board member, 55
by Jen Colletta
7 months ago | 3 3 comments | 8 8 recommendations | email to a friend
Sterling Goode, a longtime board member of The Attic Youth Center, died Dec. 21 of pancreatic cancer. He was 55. Goode served as secretary of the board at the LGBT youth organization since 2006 an...
Obituary: Bob "Brownie" Brown, 66
by Jen Colletta
8 months ago | 2 2 comments | 9 9 recommendations | email to a friend
Longtime Venture Inn employee Bob Brown, known to friends and family as Brownie, died Jan. 3 of heart disease. He was 66. Brown, a native of Philadelphia, was a waiter at Venture Inn for 37 years....
Obituary: Luis Varela, 44
by Jen Colletta
8 months ago | 1 1 comments | 8 8 recommendations | email to a friend
Luis Varela, a former Philadelphian and computer programmer, died suddenly last month at age 44. Varela, who lived in Center City from 2001 until last year, died Nov. 6 of a ruptured esophagus. H...
Rick O'Connor, 55, innkeeper
by Jen Colletta
11 months ago | 0 0 comments | 9 9 recommendations | email to a friend
Richard O’Connor, the owner of a popular Rehoboth Beach bed and breakfast, died last month of liver failure. He was 55. O’Connor was a native of Montgomery County, born July 9, 1954, in Darby. He ...
Bruce Flannery, AIDS activist, 54
by Jen Colletta
12 months ago | 0 0 comments | 14 14 recommendations | email to a friend
Bruce Flannery, a local activist who headed a statewide AIDS agency for more than a decade, died suddenly Aug. 14 from complications of open-heart surgery. He was 54. Flannery, a Long Island, N.Y....