Kathryn McGuire

McGuire
Kathryn Leigh McGuire, also known as the socialite, "Charles/Kathryn" died last week in her home in Palm Springs, CA. She was sixty-eight years old. Kathryn made a splash on the social scene in the late eighties and nineties as Houston's own transvestite millionaire socialite. She gave generously to all kinds of Houston's AIDS organizations and was one of the first to sit on a board to find a cure for the then unknown disease. She was involved in politics and ran for Houston City Council garnering her national publicity as one of the first open transvestites to run for public office in the United States. She was the subject of the PBS documentary, "The Last Days of Charles/Kathryn McGuire". She was also seen on Good Morning Houston, featured on several local and national talk shows and in articles in The Houston Post, The Houston Chronicle and The Houston Press. She attended George Bush's Sr. inauguration in Washington D.C. Charles/Kathryn underwent sexual reassignment surgery in 1992 and became simply known as Kathryn. As a woman, she talked about the trials of a post-operative transsexual in a stand-up comedy routine she performed around New York City and on her website zwamp.com. She lived out the rest of her life, happily, as a full-time woman, a long childhood wish.
Kathryn had heaps of personality, charming wit and an eye for fashion. She will be missed terribly by her surviving daughter Barbara, son James and her two grandchildren, whom she continually told to question all assumptions, to blaze your own path in life and to conquer all kinds of fear and judgments. A private service will be held in her honor by family members.