After six decades of career, Darcelle XV, the world’s oldest working drag queen, died on March 23, 2023, at 92. The longtime drag artist was performing in her native Portland until just days before her death from natural causes.
Darcelle’s name was a spin on French-American starlet Denise Darcel, and the look was based on local legend Gracie Hansen, a hotel dancer famous for her longshot run for governor of Oregon.
On her death, condolences poured in from around the world.
U.S. Senators Jeff Merkley (D) and Ron Wyden (D), the Oregon Congressional delegation, Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler, city council members, Lady Bunny, Jinkx Monsoon, and Joey Arias all sent messages honoring Darcelle. From overseas, drag royalty Maisie Trollette, the oldest drag queen in the United Kingdom, shared her grief over the longtime performer’s death.
Walter Cole
Darcelle XV, aka Walter Willard Cole, was born on November 16, 1930, and raised in the Linnton neighborhood of Portland, Oregon. He was described as a shy, “four-eyed sissy boy”. In 1952, he was drafted into the United States Army, where he was stationed in Italy with the Signal Corps, and served for three years. Afterward, he lived a “conventional” life in southeast Portland with his wife and two children. He worked at a Fred Meyer store and described himself as having “a crew cut and horn-rimmed glasses”. Cole used military funds to help start business ventures.
Cole first purchased a coffeehouse called Caffé Espresso, which later relocated and expanded to include a basement jazz club called Studio A. In 1967, he purchased a tavern in northwest Portland which became Darcelle XV Showplace.
Drag Amidst Socio-political Storms
Darcelle’s long reign was witness to a remarkable transformation of the gay community, from the time she bought a dilapidated tavern in Portland’s Old Town in 1967 to today. Stonewall, gay liberation, the AIDS epidemic, Don’t Ask Don’t Tell, marriage equality, and the current wave of conservative, anti-gay backlash all happened as Darcelle worked her club’s stage in towering wigs and backless silver pumps.
Back then, laws banning sodomy were still on the books, and forced sterilization of “sexual perverts and moral degenerates” were only recently abandoned. Raids at gay bars like Darcelle’s were commonplace.
Despite the risks, Cole bought the property as a financial investment, and an emotional one. With the purchase, Cole came out to his wife and began living openly with his boyfriend, Roxy Neuhardt. The couple would spend nearly 50 years together.
Post-Stonewall, as gay rights became front-page news in bigger cities, Darcelle kept her show in Portland on the down low to avoid antagonizing police, even while placating them; payoffs to operate without official interference were a common tactic for gay bars at the time. Cops had been there one night when Roxy danced an adagio with a male partner and the club was slapped with a fine. That never happened again.
Like a New York or San Francisco debutante, Darcelle came out to high gay society in 1972, when she has crowned Rose Empress XV, “The Happiness of the Rose,” at the Imperial Sovereign Rose Court of Oregon — the state’s longest-running LGBTQ+ charitable organization — for her charitable contributions to the community.
Darcelle added the XV designation to her professional name and wore it proudly for the rest of her life.
In the early years at Darcelle’s, dancing and performance involving more than one musical instrument were forbidden in Oregon taverns, so performers skirted the strict law by lip-syncing to records, creating an enduring art form in the process.
Then, in quick succession, Oregon’s sodomy laws were repealed, and the state’s liquor laws were liberalized.
Darcelle XV and his Portland Showplace took off.
In 2020, Darcelle XV Showplace was added to the Oregon Register of Historic Places, the first site in the state to be nominated specifically for its significance in LGBTQ+ history.
Darcelle’s final turn on stage was a performance the week before he died, for the launch of a new beer in his honor called Darcelle Blonde IPA from Gigantic Brewery. The Showplace was sold out. The 92-year-old sang two songs, both recently recorded with Portland’s iconic Pink Martini. One was The Rose, made famous by gay icon Bette Midler, and the other, Irving Berlin’s What’ll I Do, which Darcelle started singing on the Showplace stage shortly after Roxy died in 2017.Story Of The World’s Oldest Working Drag Queen
