Partner Rosemary Sliepen, Marie Williamson
Queer Places:
8066 Oak Meadow Ct, Citrus Heights, CA 95610
Rosalie "Rose" Bamberger (1921-1990) was a Filipina American, who had the
initial idea for the founding of the group Daughters of Bilitis, and enlisted
the aid of her partner, Rosemary Sliepen,
and three other lesbian couples. The Daughters of Bilitis began in 1955 in San
Francisco as a middle-class social club for lesbians wishing to avoid the bar
scene. Phyllis Lyon and
Del Martin were one of the couples,
and they are more famously associated with the group’s founding. Historians
credit Lyon and Martin with switching the group’s focus from socializing to
organizing and educating. In 1956, the group began publishing The Ladder, a
magazine focused specifically on lesbian lives. Many of the most well-known
female activists of the pre-Stonewall gay and lesbian movement—Lyon, Martin,
Kay Tobin Lahusen, and
Barbara Gittings—held
leadership positions within DOB at one time or another, as did a number of
lesbians of color, including Cleo Bonner,
Ernestine Eckstein, and Ada Bello.
The four founding couples first met at Rose and Rosemary's house on September 21, 1955. The founding meeting included Rose and her partner Rosemary Sliepen, as well as couples Del Martin and Phyllis Lyon, Marcia Foster and her partner June, and Noni Frey and her partner Mary. Rose and Rosemary were working class and both employed in brush-manufacturing factories. While they left the DOB in January 1956, both Rose and Rosemary were still on the mailing list of Del and Phyllis into the 1970s. Census records and city directories show that Rosalie and Rosemary continued to live together until Rosalie's death in 1990.
With them was living Marie Williamson, who continued to live with Rosemary
after Rosalie's death. Rosemary passed away in 2010.
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