They say that losses come in threes and this fall, we’d already lost pillars of the Cherry Grove community Lois McIntosh and Marge Cozzolino. And now, on December 10, beloved Arts Project of Cherry Grove (APCG) and Imperial Court of New York (ICNY) member Gary Greene has passed away, FIQNews learned from Facebook posts by APCG President Thom “Panzi” Hansen and Grove housemate and friend Sue Panzer, after his lengthy and arduous battle with cancer. Gary is survived by his longtime life partner Luis Valentin, also known to many as Cherry Grove Homecoming Queen Luisa Verde.
Gary and Luis(a) performed at the Grove Community House in many Arts Project shows, directed by Sal Piro and others, and in benefits for the Doctor’s Fund, directed by Donald Labohn. Gary was an original member of the Grovetones, a doo-wop group assembled by Isaac Steven Vaughan for Sal Piro’s “You Go Girl” (1998) and “Some Like It Holy” (2001), a group I also sang with and gave its name. Who can forget Gary and Luisa as Ken and Barbie (“Come on Barbie, let’s go party”) or as Frankenstein and his Bride (“Baby, it’s cold outside”)?
Gary was also a coordinator of APCG’s Casino nights, in which Luis(a) played a major role as well. Drawing on their backgrounds in construction, Gary and Luis built imaginative settings for Casino, including, notably, turning the Community House into a pirate ship one year, and their designs once graced the Ice Palace, too—they built the wooden bar shelves, on metal posts, that used to bracket the stage there.
Long before I knew him, handsome Gary had posed, he told me, for one of the skin magazines—Stallion? Inches?
Sincere condolences go to Luis. We will miss Gary very much.