November 25th

11-26-1905 – 09-25-1987 Emlyn Williams – Born in Mostyn, Flintshire, Wales, UK. He was a Welsh dramatist and actor. Williams was actively bisexual throughout his adult life. He maintained a relationship from 1981 to 1986 with theatre journalist Albert N. Williams (no relation). His best-known plays are Night Must Fall (1935) and The Corn Is Green (1938). The play, The Corn Is Green, came to Broadway in 1940 starring Ethel Barrymore as the school teacher, Miss Moffat, a character modeled closely on William’s real boyhood school teacher, Miss Sarah Grace Cooke. The play was turned into a film starring Bette Davis, and again into a made-for-television film starring Katharine Hepburn, under the direction of William’s close friend George Cukor. Williams wrote a number of screenplays and worked with Alfred Hitchcock on The Man Who Knew Too Much. His only film as a director, The Last Days of Dolwyn (1949), which he also wrote and starred in, marked the screen debut of his fellow Welshman, Richard Burton.

11-26-1924 – 10-04-1996 Alma Routsong – Born in Traverse City, Michigan. She was an American novelist best known for her lesbian fiction, published under the pen name Isabel Miller. Routsong published two novels under her own name, with her later works under her pen name Isabel Miller. In 1971, she was the first winner of the Stonewall Book Award, which celebrates books of exceptional merit that relate to LGBT issues. Her book Patience and Sarah was the winner. Routsong was an officer in the New York chapter of Daughters of Bilitis and was arrested during a DOB police raid. She died in Poughkeepsie, New York at the age of 71 and was survived by her lover of over 18 years, Julie Weber.

11-26-1939 – 10-11-1988 Wayland P. Flowers, Jr. – Born in Dawson, Georgia. He was an American actor, comedian, and puppeteer. Best known for the act with his puppet Madame, he had major national success on stage and on-screen in the 1970s and 1980s. Flower’s big break was an appearance on The Andy Williams Show. Flowers and Madame were in the center square on the final NBC episode of Hollywood Squares in June 1980. The character of Madame is an “outrageous old broad” who entertains with double entendres and witty comebacks. He died of AIDS-related cancer. Madame is currently on display in the permanent collection of the Center for Puppetry Arts in Atlanta, Georgia.

11-26-1970 John Amaechi – Born in Boston, Massachusetts. He’s the son of an English mother and Nigerian father. He is a retired NBA player. In February 2007, he came out on ESPN’s Outside the Lines program, discussing his career and life as a closeted professional athlete. He was the first NBA player to speak publicly about being gay. Amaechi currently works as an educator and broadcaster in Europe and the United States.