R.I.P. LAUREN BROWN (AKA BABY RU)

By some crazy coincidence, yesterday I had a shoot involving a funeral and then popped out in mourning to Lauren Brown's memorial at UN Plaza. Since I got to know her working for Michael Alig at the Limelight, I knew her mainly as Baby Ru before she transitioned and settled at Lucky Cheng's. I've never seen so many queens and t-gurls in a church before! I didn't think it was appropriate to snap pics in a memorial, but let me tell you, in attendance there was a who's who of NYC club folk. Princess Diandra was speaking when I walked in and had us all in stitches with her tales. A slide show accompanied the service and Diandra quipped that Lauren always looked like she needed a compact with some powder--"two hours ago!" The laughter quickly gave way to torrents of tears as everyone fondly remembered this fun-loving, sweet party-girl who clearly touched so many. And gave them crabs. KIDDING! Lailah Lancing spoke, Tobell Von Cartier read a poem, Codie Leone emceed, along with some family members who were moved to witness all the devotion of Lauren's adopted sisters of the cloth. Putting the "fun" back in funeral, so many of my favorite people were present that I half-wished we could get together more often under cheerier circumstances. Though I got a head start cuz I'm older, Baby Ru and I came up in the same way and were alike in many ways. We both hit the scene young, got hired by clubs to do our thing, loved to drink and party as well as fool with all them mens. She really was from a more carefree time in NYC before characters like us had to hustle too hard. I wasn't nearly as close as many of her friends there yesterday who worked, played and even lived with her, but am very sad to bid her this final farewell. She truly was lovely!