Queer Places:
Elmwood Cemetery Memphis, Shelby County, Tennessee, USA, Plot Chapel Hill #1142 SE Walk
G. Luther Whitington (July 2, 1957 - November 10, 1992) was an arts and entertainment reporter for UPI's L.A. bureau. He also served as a magazine editor at The Advocate.
Whitington graduated from Georgetown University in 1979. He was the senior features editor at The Advocate, a national gay magazine, and had been a contributing editor of Art & Auction magazine. Before he worked as a Moscow correspondent for United Press International.
"While Luther's obituary tells just brief surface facts about him, I learned more from this obituary than I have from my family. I do not remember going to his funeral. He was a specatular journalist and my mom tells me many attended his funeral in Los Angeles. I found two of his pieces on the internet, one featured in the "100 Years of Journalism Excellence" for United Press International from 1907-2007. He wrote an article as a journalist in Russia entitled "Chernobyl Reactor Still Burning." He reported in a dangerous area on the radiation effects of Chernobly, and wrote that the radiation should not reach the U.S. He also quoted a Kiev woman on the disaster. The article provides an insight into hig writing styles: very reportive, to the point, and informational.
I also found a story in "The Sun Sentinel" entitled More Clubs Catering to Cut-ups. The story discusses comedy clubs and the struggle of the comedian. This article, which he collaboratively wrote with two other journalist, shows me his interest in improv comedy and the "boom in the funny business, attribuable to Baby Boomers" that was apparently happening in 1987, when the article was written. Recently, I have attended several comedy shows at Rooster T. Feather's on El Camino.
I have heard people call SCU, "The Georgetown of the West Coast," whether our school is as highly qualified as Georgetown is debatable, but I do not find it a coincidence that Luther went to my sister school. I believe we would have had a lot in common as I reflect on his journalistic accomplishments, and possibly shared a few comedy shows together if he were alive today. Asking my mom more about his personality and what he liked to do, I learned a lot about the man he was beyond his occupation and lifestyle. He was caring, funny, insightful, and curious about the world. My grandmother currently has in her possession the diaries he wrote since he was in highschool, however insists no one read or possess them." --Tribute to Luther by his nephew, SCUProfessor Marc Bousquet.
Whitington died on November 10, 1992, at his home in Los Angeles. He was 35 years old. He died of complications from AIDS, his family said.
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