Aleshia Brevard

Aleshia Brevard (December 9, 1937 - July 1, 2017) was an American actress, author, and model. She underwent one of the earliest gender confirmation surgery procedures performed in the United States.
==Early life==
Brevard was born on December 9, 1937, to southern fundamentalist parents at Trousdale County, in the Appalachian Mountains of East Tennessee. She was brought up in abject poverty on a rural farm. Nicknamed "Buddy", she proved to be an artistic child and spent her days dreaming of movie stars, later stating, "I'd drape a towel over my head peek-a-boo style and pretend to be Veronica Lake". She also revealed that she would "hide [her] desires in the shadows because [she] truly believed if anyone saw the truth of who [she] really wanted to be [she] would be given away".
After leaving school at 15, she immediately headed west to California on a Greyhound bus. Inspired by Christine Jorgensen, who made transgender history by pioneering gender reassignment, Brevard began the transition process in the late 1950s.
==Career==
===Female impersonation and transition===
In her early twenties, Brevard starting performing in drag at several San Francisco clubs. Under the stage name "Lee Shaw," Brevard started doing Marilyn Monroe impressions, eventually achieving enough renown that Marilyn herself came to a performance. It was during this time that Brevard sought out specialist Harry Benjamin to help her out with her transition. At Benjamin's recommendation, Brevard underwent the surgical reassignment procedure in Los Angeles's Westlake Clinic under the care of surgeon Elmer Belt.
After surgery, she flew back to rural Hartsville, Tennessee to recover at her family home. When Dr. Benjamin telephoned her parents to inform them that their child has transitioned, they were shocked and struggled to understand. After talking with their minister, they decided that their love for their child outweighed any discomfort they felt. Brevard's mother came out to Los Angeles to be there for the surgery, never once referring to her as anything but her daughter. Her grandfather, who nicknamed Brevard "Rosy" as a child and even let her wear dresses and bows, embraced his granddaughter with open arms. He started referring to Brevard as "Rosy" again after her surgery.
===Acting and modeling===
After a year's recovery post-surgery, she enrolled as a student at Middle Tennessee State University for her undergraduate education. During this period, she became more comfortable with her womanhood, became married, and took classes. This was at a time when she was a working actress, touring the U.S. as a theater performer, and working in film and television. She gained membership to Hollywood unions, and ultimately received her master's degree in Theater from Middle Tennessee State. She also dabbled in modeling and eventually became a Playboy Bunny.
==Personal life==
Brevard was married three times, had a series of abusive boyfriends, and fended off advances from her co-stars, including Andy Griffith and Anthony Newley. In most cases, none of the men ever knew of Brevard's transgender identity. Brevard embraced feminism in the 1970s and found an ally in her mother in her ongoing quest to accept herself and her history. In an interview for Temple University Press, Brevard said about her relationships with men, "I was not being honest, even with myself. I was trying to be the woman my mate wanted me to be. By trying to live up to someone else's fantasy, I lost myself. I know a lot of married women who are still making that sad mistake".
===Gender identity===
Brevard's was one of the earliest medical transitions, which occurred before the term transgender had been coined and before there was a transgender community in San Francisco.
Brevard did not identify as trans early in her life and often deflected questions. However she decided to change because she realized she was denying her own personal history. Once her memoir was published in 2001, she started to become labeled a "transsexual writer" and "transsexual actress". As she stated in her second book, "I'd been labeled—forced into a transsexual mold".
"Professionally, both as a film/stage actress and, later, as a university professor of theatre, my life was lived outside the gender community. Only after publishing two memoirs, when in my 60s and 70s, did I first hear the term 'transgender' and become aware of the community's stated agenda," she said in an interview in 2013. She also said in April 2017, "I did not go through gender reassignment to be labeled transsexual. I look at that as an awkward phase that I went through—sort of like a really painful adolescence. I don't even think of myself now in terms as transsexual. That's something I experienced and (something) I was".
Brevard also said regarding her identity: "For me, as well as for my early sisters, the goal was never to live with a 't' before our names. Our objective was to blend so thoroughly that the things mixed could not be recognized. It was a choice, made not because we felt any shame about our transsexual history, but because our goal had always been to live fully as the women we'd been born to be."
==Later life==
She returned to California in the late 1990s, settling outside of Santa Cruz, California with an old friend, finding work as a substitute teacher, and doing community theater.
Aleshia Brevard died at home in Scotts Valley, California on July 1, 2017, at the age of 79.
==Filmography==
===Television===
Year	Title 	Role 	Notes
1969	The Red Skelton Show 	 	Brevard's Television debut
1970	One Life to Live 	Tex 	
1970	The Partridge Family 	Cocktail Waitress 	
1970	The Dean Martin Show 	 	
1972	Night Gallery 	Robot receptionist	"You Can't Get Help Like That Anymore" segment
1972	Legends of the Superheroes	Giganta 	
===Film===
Year	Title 	Role 	Notes
1969	The Love God? 	Sherry 	
1970	The Female Bunch 	Sadie 	
1970	Bigfoot 	 	
1980	The Man With Bogart's Face 	Mother of the landlady	
1980	Smokey and the Judge 	Wally Lewis 	
1981	Hard Country 	Snoopy Lady 	
1981	American Pop 	Showgirl #2 	
2005	Screaming Queens: The Riot at Compton's Cafeteria	Self 	Documentary on drag
==Theater==
Title 	Role 	Location 	Notes
Move Over Ms. Markham 	Joanna Markham 	 	
Gingerbread Lady 	Evy Meara 	 	
Seven Year Itch 	The Girl Upstairs	 	
The Shadow Box 	Beverly 	 	
Steel Magnolias 	Truvy Jones 	New York; off-broadway	
Night of the Iguana 	Maxine Faulk 	 	
Ruthless! The Musical 	Emily Green 	Chicago 	
The Midsummer Night's Dream	Hyppolyta 	Globe Theatre 	
Subject to Change 	Madeline Bassett 	 	
==Bibliography==
Year	Title 	Cover	Notes
2001	The Woman I Was Not Born to Be:A Transsexual Journey	 	ISBN 978-1-4399-0527-2
2015	Bilbo's Bend 	 	ISBN 978-0-9961-3444-6
==External links==
* IMDb
==References==
Category:Drag