Partner Mabel Hampton
Queer Places:
639 E 169th St, Bronx, NY 10456, Stati Uniti
Saint Raymond's Cemetery, 2600 Lafayette Ave, Bronx, NY 10465, Stati Uniti
In 1932 Lillian Foster (November 13, 1894 – August 7, 1978) met the dancer
Mabel Hampton. The two quickly fell
in love and remained a couple until Lillian'd death. For 45 years they, along
with various friends, formed a household, in 169th Street in the Bronx, that
weathered World War II, the Civil Rights era, and the Stonewall Rebellion.
The event that changes Ms. Hampton's life forever happens early on in the decade, in 1932. While waiting for a bus, she meets a woman even smaller then herself, "dressed like a duchess," as Ms. Hampton would later say. Her name was Lillian Foster and the two would remain together for the rest of Lillian's life. Ms. Foster remembers in 1976, two years before her death: "Forty-four years ago I met Mabel. We was a wonderful pair. I'll never forget it. But she's a little tough. I met her in 1932, September twenty-second. And we haven't been separated since in our whole life. Death will separate us. Other than that I don't want it to end."?
Ms. Hampton, to the consternation of her more discrete friends, dressed in an obvious way much of her life. Her appearance, however, did not seem to bother her wife. Ms. Foster goes on to say;"A lady walked in once, Joe's wife, and she says, 'You is a pretty neat girl. you have a beautiful little home but where is your husband?' And just at that time, Mabel comes in the door with her key and I said, 'There is my husband.' Joe's wife said 'Now you know if that was your husband, you wouldn't have said it!' to which Ms. Foster firmly replied, "But I said it!"
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