Dr. Lynn and Alice's Story

In the fall of 1972, new students came to Gallaudet. They included Rita Corey, a preparatory student from Berkeley, California. She recognized me from her brother, Ed Chevvy, my classmate at Gallaudet, and we became instant friends. We got together often to interpret songs and I was somewhat her ASL coach. Then she decided to introduce her classmate from Louisiana, Delores “Alice” Miller who is also hard of hearing but the first time I met Alice, they introduced her as Alice Cooper, a famous male singer, and I was clueless of his fame. They mocked me. Rita and Alice showed me an album of Alice Cooper. Alice said “I’m Alice Miller.” I was quite embarrassed and somewhat deflated as both were preparatory students while I was a freshman. From there on, the three of us became inseparable when it came to interpreting songs.

Alice and I fell in love. We knew LGBTQ wasn’t acceptable back then and I told her to be extremely careful as she was never a lesbian but she didn’t care and kissed me in front of people. Alice grabbed and held my hand walking to Fowler Hall, passing sisters of the Phi Kappa Zeta Sorority near Ely Hall. I couldn’t believe what she did. From then on, we broke barriers for the LGBTQ students at Gallaudet. We became legal guardians of Hazel V. Waldron from West Virginia School for the Deaf for 10 years and we got her to donate over $150,000 to Gallaudet. We were together for 21 years. My first love. Now Delores Alice Miller and Rita Ann Corey are up in the celestial skies interpreting songs, and I can almost “hear” them signing.