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People with a History: Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Trans* History Sourcebook
Jeff Jones:
The Extraordinary Life of Sweet Evening Breeze: Life of 1950s Transgendered Male Profiled
From: WillNich@aol.com
Date: Mon, 17 Feb 1997 17:04:31 -0500 (EST)
Subject: Life of 1950s Transgendered Male Profiled
To be published in the March issue of The Letter - Kentucky's gay and lesbian
newspaper. For reprint rights, contact David Williams, Editor, at
WillNich@aol.com.
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THE EXTRAORDINARY LIFE OF SWEET EVENING BREEZE
by Jeff Jones, exclusive to The Letter
James Herndon was born in Scott County, the youngest of John and Kate
Herndon's eight children. There is some confusion about his actual birthday,
but he is believed to have been born around 1895.
In his many decades living in Lexington, he was widely regarded as the city's
most colorful character, and there are numerous stories (both true and
legendary) about Herndon. In fact, few Lexingtonians actually know him as
James Herndon, but he is more widely known by his nickname, "Sweet Evening
Breeze," or "Miss Sweets."
Herndon often wore make-up, occassionally performed or appeared on Main
Street on Saturdays in drag, and was apparently quite effeminate. Long
before there was Ru Paul, Lexington's Sweet Evening Breeze was titillating
and gaining respect from locals.
For most of his long life, Sweets worked at Good Samaritan Hospital. As the
legend goes, he was taken to the hospital for an eye injury by his uncle as a
child and left overnight. Details are obscure, but apparently the boy was
basically abandoned at the hospital. He eventually became friends with Miss
Lake Johnson, the hospital superintendent, who gave him a room there.
At some point he began delivering the hospital mail and playing his ukulele
for patients. His late childhood and teen years, he lived and worked at the
hospital, finally learning the profession of orderly, a career that he
followed for forty years at the same hospital. Herndon was widely regarded
as the best orderly in the hospital and usually trained new orderlies.
Eventually he moved to Prall Street, part of a hundred year old
African-American neighborhood across from the University of Kentucky where
Alfalfa's and Bourbon Street Cafe are now located. His home was filled with
antiques; by all reports he kept it spotlessly clean. Even though he lived
in the era of segregation, his job as an orderly gave him a relatively high
income for an African-American Lexingtonian during the first half of this
century.
Stories about Herndon are numerous. At this late date it's nearly impossible
to authenticate many of them, but those that seem reliable include the
following.
In his day, Herndon was considered to be an excellent cook. During World War
II, he would meet troops passing through Lexington at the train station and
give them his homemade cakes. His fruitcake--the irony not being lost
here--was considered his crowning culinary achievement.
His most notable drag performance apparently was at Lexington's Woodland
Auditorium, where he was lowered from the ceiling in a basket dressed in
"feminine frills" and danced the "Passion Dance of the Bongo Bangoes."
Decades before Ziggy Stardust and David Bowie gave new emphasis to
genderbending, Miss Sweets would spend his Saturdays visiting with friends
and acquaintances on Main Street. On seeing Ru Paul on television recently,
one elderly woman in Harrodsburg told my friend Marc that Ru was nothing new.
She reminisced fondly of trips long ago with her fiance (later, her husband)
into Lexington to shop on Saturdays. The couple always made a point to stop
and visit with "Miss Sweets." As Sweet Evening Breeze, Herndon might appear
in a range of dress that could include a suit, plus lipstick and eye-liner.
When Good Sam's doctors and nurses played each other in basketball, Sweets
was the cheerleader.
Every year during the Bluegrass Fair, Herndon would hold a large banquet for
his family from nearby Scott County. He also regularly sent or would take
gifts back to his family and old neighborhood there.
For many years he was a member of historic Pleasant Green Baptist Church.
When he died, he apparently left a considerable amount of money to the
church.
On the more risqu=E9 side, older gay men in town remember that Sweets could be
seen on occasion frequenting the bathrooms of the Phoenix Hotel and Union
Station for "tearoom trade." According to these accounts, Sweets' home on
Prall Street also served as a meeting place for gay people. Sometimes it
also served as a sexual outlet for a number of otherwise closeted UK
students.
Whether Sweets ever settled down and found a partner is difficult to say.
Local legends do not mention such a man, but his obituary does hold this
tantalizing sentence: "He is survived by... a host of great-nieces and
nephews; close friends, INCLUDING HUGH STERLING (emphasis added), and his
church family." Was Hugh Sterling Sweets' partner?
Through the Depression, World War II, and desegregation, Herndon cut a path
as an openly gay man, drag queen, and possibly even transgendered person.
Legend holds that Herndon was accepted in part because he was a
hermaphrodite. In his will, he donated his body to the University of
Kentucky for scientific study. Nothing I have yet uncovered, however,
substantiates this donation or his alleged hermaphroditism. Sweets' many
friends described him as sensitive and kind. They relate that he was often
deeply hurt and enraged when people would make fun of him.
Herndon died on Friday, Dec. 16, 1983, at the Homestead Nursing Center. He
was thought to be in his 90s and was survived by many loving friends and
family. For his extraordinary achievement in simply being himself against
the enormous odds of his time, the Royal Sovereign Imperial Court of All
Kentucky named its highest honor the James Herndon Award. In 1996, the
Lexington Men's Chorus also named its small singing ensemble Sweet Evening
Breeze in his honor as well.
Historians doing research on Lexington's gay and/or African-American
communities will find very little information on individual lives before the
1950s. There is, however, an entire slim file in the Kentucky Room in the
University of Kentucky's library on a transgendered man whom many writers
have called Lexington's most memorable and colorful character: James "Sweet
Evening Breeze" Herndon.
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Source.
From: http://www.qrd.org/qrd/culture/1997/lexington.ky.life.story.of.1950s.transgendered.male-02.17.97
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