#walter cole

[theinternetisaweboflies]

Darcelle, world's oldest drag queen, dies at 92

Walter Cole, better known as the iconic drag queen who performed for decades as Darcelle XV and a fearless advocate for Portland's LGBTQ+ community, has died of natural causes in Portland, Oregon. He was 92.

Darcelle hosted some of my hometown’s first Pride parades.

RIP Walter Cole.  

[unpopularly-opinionated]

Welp, I know this post won’t really track w/ the folks following me, but RIP Walter Cole, best known as Darcelle. You lived a long, fruitful life. I didn’t know you, but my step mother grew up next door, and you and her dad were good friends before he passed many years back.

Portland's famous drag queen, Walter Cole, known as Darcelle, dies

Portland’s famous drag queen Walter Cole, better known as Darcelle, has died, according to a post from his club on Facebook.He was 92.The Fa

Closest to Portland royalty, I’d say.

[eamlav]

dilf probably

[swanlake1998]

maiden in flight, lithograph, by walter cole

[arc-angel-o]

I stood by a willow as the mourners began to move away. And I watched, with bitterness, sorrow, and regret, as Walter Cole walked away with them without saying a word to me. We had been close once; partners for a time, then friends and, of all those whose friendship I had lost, it was Walter that I missed the most. He was an educated man. He liked books, and movies that didn't star Steven Seagal or Jean-Claude Van Damme, and good food. He had been best man at my wedding, the box holding the rings clutched so hard in his hand that it had left deep ridges in his palm. I had played with his children. Susan and I had enjoyed dinners, the theater and walks in the park, with Walter and his wife, Lee. And I had sat with him for hours and hours, in cars and bars, in courtrooms and back rooms and felt the deep, steady pulse of life throbbing beneath our feet.

— Charlie Parker, page 42 of Dark Hollow, by John Connolly

[arc-angel-o]

"You should go away from here, do something to put your ghosts behind you. You're no longer what you once were, but maybe you can still step back, before you lose yourself forever."

– Walter Cole to Charlie Parker, Every Dead Thing

[drag-tween]

Walter Cole, Portland’s legendary drag queen Darcelle and civic icon, dies at 92

Walter Cole was known to the world as Darcelle XV, and was recognized as the world’s oldest performing drag queen. The performer, who became a Portland icon for gay rights, has died

[drag-tween]

‘Not our first pandemic’: drag queen, 90, who stayed onstage during Covid

Portland's Darcelle XV, officially the world’s oldest drag queen, is part of an LGBT generation that lived through HIV/AIDS