Mike Blizzard: Obituary (Gay Chicago Magazine)

From Gay Chicago Magazine's Website, Dated July 22-28, 2010:

PASSINGS

MIKE BLIZZARD

Mike Blizzard, 54, suffered a heart attack and passed away at his Munster, IN, home July 16.

Blizzard was known to many in Chicago as Lois Carmen D'Nominator and was the International Association of Gay Square Dance Clubs Honky Tonk Queen of 1995. He was one of the original SheDevils who performed at early Northalsted Market Days events. The SheDevils were the 1992 Gay Chicago Magazine Entertainers of the Year.

In 1997, Blizzard told Gay Chicago, "The concept was born in Vancouver. It was at a square dance convention. ... So we were all sitting around in a hotel room, and I put on a black crinoline, and I said, 'Oh, it makes you feel so Spanish,' as it was like a mantilla, and I started singing 'Carmen.' Then someone said, 'A fabulous drag name would be Carmen D'Nominator.' And to be a SheDevil, it had to begin with L, so I became Lois Carmen D'Nominator. Dana (Blizzard's roommate, aka Lucy Ann Purchase) didn't want me to be a SheDevil – at all. He didn't want two of us doing the same thing together in the same house, and he didn't want me to steal any of his glory, because he knew that I would be a better SheDevil than him…and I guess history has proven that. ...She'll never forgive me for saying that."

Friends said he had been in poor health for several years due to complications from diabetes, but he had been well enough to appear at an IAGSDC gathering in Chicago several weeks ago.

Funeral information was not available as Gay Chicago Magazine went to press, but a member of Chi-Town Squares said discussions about a memorial service were underway.