Every Day of Living is a Gift

This mural was created in celebration of the 10th anniversary of ArtsWave Pride, honoring a decade of supporting and uplifting LGBTQIA+ artists, creativity, and cultural expression.

 

Every Day of Living is a Gift is dedicated to the memory and performances of Terry Noel. Her fashionable costume is based on a photo of her in the 82 Club Program from 1965. The audience includes renowned trans photographer Loren Rex Cameron, gay artist and tobacco farmer William “Bill” Pietre, a nod to the queer organizing newsletter Dinah, drag queen and queer icon Sweet Evening Breeze, and the charming male impersonator Stormé DeLarverie. Scroll down to learn more about the figures in the mural.

The title comes from a 2006 interview with Morgan Stevens. Morgan asks, “What does the future hold for Ms. Noel?” Terry responds with, “Well, Ms. Noel is now of a certain age where every day of living is a gift!”

Terry Noel: A Life Fully Lived

Terry Noel grew up in Kentucky and made her drag debut in 1958, where she both competed for, and won a drag pageant hosted by a local Northern Kentucky hangout called the Jacebo Club (later renamed The Downstairs Club).

Following her win, she applied and was accepted as a showgirl in the Jewel Box Revue, a famous traveling female impersonator revue known for its beautiful costumes and live music performances. She joined the cast of New York City’s famous 82 Club in late 1960, performing as a showgirl and in later years, graced the stage in a solo singing act.

In 1963 Terry stepped back from the spotlight and, with the support of her family, underwent SRS (sex reassignment surgery) from a small doctor in rural Illinois and later revisions from a doctor in Yonkers, New York.

After her surgeries, Terry decided to leave showbiz and settle into a steady office job in Virginia. Over the next few decades in Virginia Beach, Terry went on to live a robust life as she was finally able to embody her full and authentic self. She got married to a navy man, whom she raised a child with, divorced him, and went back to school to advance her career as a computer programmer/analyst for the government where worked until she retired in 1997.

Terry moved back to Northern Kentucky to be with her family during the later years of her life, passing away in December of 2023. Terry lived a life full of joy and enterprise, leaving behind a story of beauty and tenacity for generations of queer people to look back to.

 

The Story Behind the Mural

This mural is dedicated to the memory and performances of Terry Noel– her fashionable costume is based on a photo of her in the 82 Club Program from 1965. The title comes from an 2006 interview with Morgan Stevens. Morgan asks, “What does the future hold for Ms. Noel?” Terry responds with, “Well, Ms. Noel is now of a certain age where every day of living is a gift!” This phrase inspired me, as it reminds us of the incredible perseverance and tenacity it takes for queer people to live and become the next generation of queer elders. Every day that a trans person stays alive is a blessing. In these times of discrimination against our trans and queer siblings, Terry’s story offers us a connection to a queer elder whose story shows us that, even under difficult times, it’s possible for trans people to live long and thriving lives.

A Stage Filled With Queer History

Sitting in the audience of the club are many queer historical figures from Kentucky, Cincinnati, and our shared national LGBTQ+ history.

The Downstairs Club

The club in the background Terry is performing in, references to The Downstairs Club where Terry won her first drag competition. The Downstairs Club was a gay club just outside of Covington that was open from the late 1950s through the late 1970s. It offered a place of queer expression during a conservative time in Kentucky’s history.

However, I would be remiss to not mention the fact that The Downstairs Club, up until around 1970, was heavily segregated. The founder of Cincinnati’s first Gay Rights Organization, (or Homophile Organization as it was known in 1967) Mary Ann “Annie” Lederer, worked with the son of The Downstairs Club founders–over the course of a year or two–to eventually desegregate the bar. Annie’s interview reminiscing on the 60s and about the Downstairs Club was published in a Dinah newsletter.

Loren Rex Cameron

Starting at the top left, these two figures are inspired by a photo from the groundbreaking book “Body Alchemy: Transsexual Portraits” which contains writings and photos documenting the process of transitioning and everyday musings on the lives of trans men.

The left figure in the pair is author and photographer of the book, Loren Rex Cameron (b. March 13, 1959). He was a photographer, trans man, and transgender activist whose projects are credited in helping to make transgender men more visible in American culture during the 1990s.

Tapestry Magazine

Underneath the pair, is a portrait based on a figure from a 1988 cover of Tapestry Magazine. Having gone by many names, “The TV Tapestry”, “The Tapestry”, “Tapestry” and “TV/TS Tapestry Journal;” Tapestry, over the course of its 30 year run, grew from a local newsletter into a respected magazine distributed nationwide. Particularly its lists of support groups and helping professionals in every issue was largely impactful in connecting people to education and support in their transition.

William “Bill” Pietre

Next is William “Bill” Pietre, an artist and tobacco farmer born in Covington, who lived on a farm with his partner Tom. Bill’s painting style was boldly colored, exuberant, and self described as “lyrical imagery.” Their farm in Grant County became a rural oasis for gay men to appreciate the beauty of Kentucky.

Dinah

Next to Bill is a woman holding a copy of a Cincinnati newsletter called Dinah. Both a community organization and local newsletter, Dinah became a connection point for local lesbians and queer people to find community through event calendars, political organizing, personal articles, and ads for LGBTQ+ friendly businesses.

The newsletter ran for an incredible 22 years and put out 100 issues starting in 1995 up until 1997. Dinah archived other regional LGBTQ+ printed media like flyers, pamphlets, and novels. This collection grew until 1989, when it turned into the Ohio Lesbian Archives on the third floor of the Crazy Ladies Bookstore in Northside.

FTM Pride

In the bottom left row of figures, is a man wearing a shirt with “FTM pride” written on the front. His shirt references a sign made by Loren Rex Cameron for the 1994 San Francisco Pride parade. Where he and a group of trans men marched the parade proudly brandishing a banner with “FTM Trans Pride” written on it.

This was an act of brave visibility as just the year before, activism group Transgender Nation held their first protest at the American Psychiatric Association’s annual convention. Demonstrators were there to voice their opposition to the classification of transsexuality and related identities as mental illnesses in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM).

Sweet Evening Breeze

Sweet Evening Breeze was born in Scott County, Kentucky in 1892 and moved to Lexington as a child. Sweets was one of the first openly gay people in Kentucky, achieving a notoriety that gained her access to spaces and freedoms unavailable to most black queer people living in Lexington at the time.

Sweets’s home on Prall Street began as early as the 1920s to host Black drag shows, social entertainment, and a safe space for local queer folks of all races to gather. Sweets forged a strong queer community, despite the hostile and sometimes violent backlash they would sometimes receive from community members or from local police.

Stormé DeLarverie

Stormé DeLarverie was born ‘way down yonder’ in New Orleans, Louisiana on Christmas Eve, December 24 of 1920. Stormé is best known for her being the only male impersonator to perform in the legendary Jewel Box Revue.

Stormé was described to have a silvery baritone voice with a jazz-oriented sound and dressed very gentlemanly during her performances both on and off the stage. For many years, she worked at the lesbian bars in New York City as a butch bouncer, continuing to wear all male attire and a roguish male attitude.

She is also well known for her role of throwing the first punch the night the Stonewall Rebellion began. She went on to become one of the founding members of the Stonewall Rebellion Veterans Association and continued being an active leader in activism and the gay community until she passed in 2014 at the age of 93.