Just Marion & Lynn's

Last updated

Just Marion & Lynn's, stylized "Just" Marion & Lynn's, was a gay bar that was opened in 1973 by Marion Pantzer and Lynn Hornaday in the Montrose neighborhood of Houston, Texas, United States. [1] It was one of the first lesbian-oriented bars to open in Houston. The bar closed in 1987, one year after Pantzer was murdered.

Contents

History

Opening

Marion Pantzer was born in 1919 and was a World War II army veteran. Lynn Hornaday was working at a stock brokerage firm just prior to opening the bar. [2] Pantzer and Hornaday opened Just Marion & Lynn's on September 14, 1973, at 817 Fairview Street in the Montrose neighborhood of Houston. Although it was oriented towards LGBT women, men also attended the bar regularly, and Pantzer entertained customers by dressing up as a clown. In 1977, folk musician Casse Culver played at the bar. [3] Alongside Pat Hall, Pantzer opened a second bar, Marion's Too, in 1978 at 109 Tuam Street in Houston; Marion's Too closed sometime the next year. Just Marion & Lynn's occasionally hosted Houston Gay Pride Week events and Let Us Entertain You weekends, such as Lee McCormick's performance in 1979 and Linda Gerard and Diane Marchal in 1982 and 1983. [3]

Beginning in 1980, advertisements for the bar became less frequent. Pantzer was named a Grand Marshal for the 1983 Houston Gay Pride Parade on June 26. Then-Mayor Kathy Whitmire declared April 28, 1985, to be Marion Pantzer Day, and later the same year, the bar moved to a new location at 903 Richmond Street. [4] During the location change, the bar also went through an official name change to Just Marion's, [5] due to Pantzer's and Hornaday's breakup shortly after the opening of the bar, [2] although patrons and the media continued to use its original title.

Murder of Marion Pantzer

The area in which the bar was located became a popular crime target during the 1980s. [4] Shortly after closing, at around 1 a.m. on March 11, 1986, two armed, masked men entered the bar with intent to rob it. One man, armed with a sawed-off .410 shotgun, threatened the bartender, Peaches. Pantzer, who always had a .25 automatic derringer pistol for self-defense, drew her gun, and fired. [5] Accounts vary about from where Marion produced the gun; some witnesses say she pulled it out of her sweatshirt, [5] while others say it was pulled out of her purse. [2] The robbers returned fire, hitting Pantzer five times and rupturing Pantzer's aorta, and then fled. [4] [5] Pantzer was 67 years old at the time of her death. [5]

Robert McGowen was later arrested and sent to death row for the murder of Pantzer, but he defended himself by saying his car had been used by his cousin, Charles McGowen, to commit the crime, and that Roger was not present; however, Charles was killed in a gunfight with police while committing another robbery a few months after Pantzer's death. [5]

The Montrose community mourned Pantzer's loss. Her funeral was one of the most well-attended in Houston history. [4] The hundreds of guests included Mayor Kathy Whitmire, drag queens, police officers, business owners, and other community members. [4] [5] The attendance was so large that a walking procession was led to reduce traffic. [2] The Pantzer Reward Fund was established by the Houston Organization of Bar Owners immediately after the murder to help solve the case and other robberies in the area; the fund raised over $5,000. The Marion & Lynn Rebels, an LGBT women's softball team from Houston who named themselves after the bar, played in the 1986 Women's Gay World Series in New Haven, Connecticut. [3]

The bar remained open after Pantzer's death, but it closed one year later in 1987. [3]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kathy Whitmire</span> American politician

Kathryn Jean Whitmire is an American politician, businesswoman, and accountant best known as the first woman to serve as Mayor of Houston, serving for five consecutive two-year terms from 1982 to 1992. From 1977 to 1981, she was the city controller, a position which made her the first woman elected to any office in the city. Whitmire drew national attention when she defeated former Harris County Sheriff Jack Heard in her election as mayor. The election drew national focus because it symbolized a major political realignment in the fourth-largest city in the United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Queer Nation</span> LGBTQ activist organization

Queer Nation is an LGBTQ activist organization founded in March 1990 in New York City, by HIV/AIDS activists from ACT UP. The four founders were outraged at the escalation of anti-gay violence on the streets and prejudice in the arts and media. The group is known for its confrontational tactics, its slogans, and the practice of outing.

Timeline of historical events of Houston, Texas, United States:

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Annise Parker</span> American politician

Annise Danette Parker is an American politician who served as the 61st Mayor of Houston, Texas, from 2010 until 2016. She also served as an at-large member of the Houston City Council from 1998 to 2003 and city controller from 2004 to 2010.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Montrose, Houston</span> Neighborhood of Houston in Harris, Texas, United States

Montrose is a neighborhood located in west-central Houston, Texas, United States. Montrose is a 7.5-square-mile (19 km2) area roughly bounded by Interstate 69/U.S. Highway 59 to the south, Allen Parkway to the north, South Shepherd Drive to the west, and Taft to Fairview to Bagby to Highway 59 to Main to the east. The area is also referred to as Neartown or Neartown / Montrose.

Paul Broussard (1964–1991), a 27-year-old Houston-area banker and Texas A&M alumnus, died after a gay bashing incident outside a Houston nightclub in the early hours of July 4, 1991. Nine teenaged youths, ages 15–17, and one 22-year-old were intoxicated on drugs and alcohol when they left a high school party in the suburb of The Woodlands and headed for Houston's heavily gay Montrose area in an attempt to gain admittance to dance clubs located in the vicinity.

Sally Huffer is an American LGBT activist that resides in Houston.

The Houston LGBTQ+ Political Caucus is the South's oldest civil rights organization dedicated solely to the advancement of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender rights. It was founded in 1975, and is the largest LGBTQ political organization in the city of Houston and Harris County. It is known locally simply as "The Caucus". The Caucus is nonpartisan and endorses candidates on the basis of their support for LGBTQ rights, regardless of political party or candidate's sexual orientation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">History of violence against LGBT people in the United States</span>

The history of violence against LGBT people in the United States is made up of assaults on gay men, lesbians, bisexuals, and transgender individuals (LGBTQ), legal responses to such violence, and hate crime statistics in the United States of America. The people who are the targets of such violence are believed to violate heteronormative rules and they are also believed to contravene perceived protocols of gender and sexual roles. People who are perceived to be LGBT may also be targeted for violence. Violence can also occur between couples who are of the same sex, with statistics showing that violence among female same-sex couples is more common than it is among couples of the opposite sex, but male same-sex violence is less common.

Greta Schiller is an American film director and producer, best known for the 1984 documentary Before Stonewall: The Making of a Gay and Lesbian Community and the 1995 documentary Paris Was a Woman.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">LGBTQ culture in Liverpool</span>

The LGBT community in Liverpool, England is one of the largest in the United Kingdom and has a recorded history since the 18th century. Many historic LGBT firsts and pioneering moments in the LGBT rights movement either took place in Liverpool or were achieved by citizens of the city.

Mary's, originally called Mary's, Naturally and sometimes referred to as Mary's Lounge, was an iconic gay bar located in the Montrose neighborhood in Houston, Texas, in the United States. The bar opened in 1968, and by the time of its permanent closing in November 2009, it was the oldest gay bar in Houston and one of the oldest in Texas. In addition to being one of the most popular and well-known gay bars in Montrose, Mary's was a hub for gay political activism. In 2011, OutSmart said that the bar "anchored" Houston's gay community in Montrose during its nearly forty-year history.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">LGBTQ culture in Houston</span>

Houston has a large and diverse LGBT population and is home to the 4th largest gay pride parade in the nation. Houston has the largest LGBT population of any city in the state of Texas.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hyde Park, Montrose, Houston</span> Neighborhood in Houston, Texas, United States

Hyde Park is a historic community located in the Montrose neighborhood of Houston, Texas. Its southeast boundary is the intersection Montrose Boulevard and Westheimer. The neighborhood was established in the late 1800s on the summer farm of the second President of the Republic of Texas, Mirabeau Lamar. In the 1970s, Hyde Park became a central part of the Gay Rights Movement in Houston. Like much of Montrose, the neighborhood is now experiencing significant gentrification, and is home to an abundance of restaurants, including Mexican, Italian, Greek, American, Lebanese, coffee houses, and numerous bars.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Declan Flynn</span> Murdered Irish gay man (1951–1982)

Declan Flynn was an Irish gay man attacked and killed in Fairview Park in Dublin. His murder is seen as the catalyst for the LGBTQ Pride movement in Ireland. His death came about as a result of a series of beatings meted out to gay men in Dublin who used Fairview Park as a meeting place at the time.

Brazos River Bottom, also known as the BRB, was a gay bar located in the Midtown, Houston, Texas, United States, that opened in 1978. At the time of its closure in 2013, it was one of Houston's oldest gay bars, and the oldest still running at its original location.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Montrose Center</span> LGBT health organization in Houston, Texas

The Montrose Center is an LGBTQ community center located in Houston, Texas, in the United States. The organization provides an array of programs and services for the LGBTQ community, including mental and behavioral health, anti-violence services, support groups, specialized services for youth, seniors, and those living with HIV, community meeting space, and it now operates the nation's largest LGBTQ-affirming, affordable, senior living center in the nation, the Law Harrington Senior Living Center. It is a member of the National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs. It is in Neartown (Montrose).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">1977 Houston Anita Bryant protests</span>

In 1977, the Texas State Bar Association invited country singer Anita Bryant to perform at a meeting in Houston, Texas. In response to Bryant's outspoken anti-gay views and her Save Our Children campaign, thousands of members of the Houston LGBT community and their supporters marched through the city to the venue in protest on June 16, 1977. The protests have been called "Houston's Stonewall" and set into motion the major push for LGBT rights in Houston.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Henrietta Hudson</span> Queer restaurant and former lesbian bar in New York City, U.S.

Henrietta Hudson, originally named Henrietta Hudson Bar & Girl, is a queer restaurant and lounge in Manhattan's West Village neighborhood. It operated as a lesbian bar from 1991 to 2014. Until it rebranded in 2021, it was one of three remaining lesbian bars in New York City. Henrietta Hudson's location is the original location of the Cubbyhole bar, which had the distinction of being lesbian-owned and managed.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">JR's Bar and Grill</span> Gay bar in Houston, Texas, U.S.

JR's Bar and Grill is a gay bar in Neartown, Houston, in the U.S. state of Texas. Charles Armstrong is the owner.

References

  1. Places of Interest to Women, 1985. Publications Inc Ferrari, Marianne Ferrari. 1984. p.  127. Just Marion & Lynn's 817 Fairview - "Just+Marion+%26+Lynn's"+address It was also at 903 Richmond according to Bob Damron's Address Book, 1987, page 4, and Allgo Pasa!: Newsletter of the Austin Latino/a Lesbian & Gay, 1986, page 2.
  2. 1 2 3 4 Sears, James Thomas (2001). Rebels, Rubyfruit, and Rhinestones: Queering Space in the Stonewall South (eBook). New Brunswick, New Jersey: Rutgers University Press. p. 354. ISBN   0813529646 . Retrieved June 30, 2016.
  3. 1 2 3 4 "Just Marion & Lynn's". Houston LGBT History. Houston LGBT History. Retrieved June 30, 2016.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 "Marion Pantzer, 1919-1986". Houston LGBT History. Houston LGBT History. Retrieved June 30, 2016.
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Ford, Nancy (March 1, 2007). "What a World: Just Memories". OutSmart Magazine . OutSmart Media . Retrieved June 30, 2016.