Only a few roses remain in Portland, leaves of a certain vibrant color. Some say you haven't lived if you haven't put a dollar into the G-string of a 91-year-old drag queen dressed as a cowboy in butt-less leather chaps. That's the motto of Darcelle XV, the world's oldest working female impersonator, known as the "unofficial welcome wagon to Portland." With her towering wigs, hand-sewn frocks, huge jewels and a flamboyant persona modelled on B-list French actress from the 1950's, thousands have flocked to her cabaret club for over 60 years, Darcelle XV. She is the actual title holder of the world's oldest working queen when she took that title several years ago at 89. But she is also distinguished from all the other queens in that she has worked and owned her own club since the 60's, the fabulous, Darcelle XV Showroom, situated just north of downtown, very near the river. A bevy of talent and stunning beauties. A modern-day Jewel Box Revue of sorts. Darcelle is the author of two books about her long and accomplished life, one of which I have read, Just Call Me Darcelle. In the book she writes a lot about how careful and long it took her to maintain a careful partition between Darcelle and Walter, her given name. She kept them apart for years, but over time, they had integrated, and merged into one. Yet despite the apparent unity, she still insists on the possibility of multiplicity: "Don't build a fence around me. I'm not one person, none of us are. We fought to do away with labels; now there is a label for everything." Amen! Having lived through WWII, the Persian Gulf War, racial tensions, the Compton and Stonewall Riots, losing many friends, co-workers and family to the AIDS epidemic, The COVID pandemic, and the riots that took the streets of the BLM movement in Portland... I'm here to tell you this queen is a testament of life, the wealth of storytelling and lesson to learn from her are a treasure. She is the definition of survival of the fittest. How many queens can say they have had a career span this long, doing weekly shows?!?!?
For her, the freedoms struggled for the gay liberation movement were bound up in this possibility of radically remaking any aspect of one's life or identify. And I adore her for that. There's a quote in her book I read that I love. "If you're not happy-with your friends, family, job, self-move on! Someone once asked me my pronouns, I said, FUCK YOU! I don't care what you call me, as long as you're calling me...." And that checks clear. Amen sister!!!! Now all rise for Darcelle!!!
