Dee Dee

Pictured left in these images, alongside Lexington artist Bob Morgan and other members of The Pagan Babies, is Dee Dee. Taken in the mid-1970s, they were being photographed at the bar of The Living Room before it eventually became what is now known as the Bar Complex. 

Dee Dee and her mother moved to Lexington for what was, at the time, a relatively secretive gender reassignment surgery program at the University of Kentucky Medical Center. Bob Morgan describes how, “during the time period we met Deedee, there were always 10 or 15 people in town taking up residence to go through [the program] and it was all done sort of hush hush. So occasionally one of these folks or two of these folks would find their way to the bar and come out on weekends and they were some of the first true transgender people that most of us met.” Dee Dee loved The Living Room and frequented the establishment often with her mother. Her mother also made all of Dee Dee’s outfits, one of which you can see here.

While not much is known about Dee Dee, her impact on the queer scene in Lexington can still be seen through these images and the legacy that she left.