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Now, her cast mate Katya has weighed in, confirming the story and seconding her assertion that you shouldn’t meet your heroes.ĭuring an interview on Joseph Shepard’s series Exposed, Katya said her own on set experience “was worse,” but that she has “enough couth to not bring Ru into it. When her brother was diagnosed with terminal cancer in early August, Campbell said, his only wish was to return to Florida, to be close to his five remaining siblings and to be buried near his mother, who died in April.Īlthough he didn't make it back to Florida, Campbell said her brother died peacefully, loved and surrounded by family.By now we’ve all heard the story of Pearl’s encounter with RuPaul on season seven of RuPaul’s Drag Race, during which the queen tried to thank her hero for inspiring her and was told that “nothing matters” unless the cameras were rolling. The drag performer had retired in 2010 and moved to North Carolina, performing in Gainesville from time to time.įor the last two or three years, Lady Pearl had been making the drive to Gainesville every week to host the drag show. “There's not a soul he wouldn't help.”Ĭampbell and her brother Lewis Oatman were with their brother Brent when he died in hospice care Wednesday outside Fayetteville, N.C. and it was to affect people in a way that's positive,” Campbell said. That kindness and generosity has always been a part of Margaret Ann Campbell's older brother William Moorehead, who the family always called “Brent.” “She is the personification of what it means to be yourself and to love who you are.”Īlthough she could be catty, known for her signoff of, “See ya, sure as f- wouldn't want to be ya,” Lady Pearl did a lot of background work and fundraising for HIV/AIDS and cancer foundations. “Pearl taught me so many things about loving myself,” said Tyler, now 26 years old.
“Why aren't you inside, dancing with everybody?” Tyler said Pearl asked him.Īnother night, when he'd finally gone inside, she pulled him out from the corner during the show and told him, in front of the crowd, that he should be proud of who he is.įor Tyler, and a lot of gay teenagers coming from small towns and wrestling with self-acceptance, Pearl's encouragement resonated deeply. The first time Justin Tyler met Pearl, he was standing outside the UC, a nervous 17-year-old too young to get in, so he was waiting for his boyfriend to come out. She could also tell who needed a little help getting comfortable with their identity.
that's the mark of a class act, and she was a class act.”Īs an emcee, she was ruthless, often bringing into the show the unsuspecting straight boy standing by the stairs, the one who'd been dragged there by his girlfriend, and making him part of her monologue. “I think that's what gave people the freedom to enjoy her show. picking on herself, as much as anyone else,” Miller said. “She's always abrasive on stage a little bit, and in your face. It was the first time in Gainesville, he said, that frat boys and straight-lacers were standing in the front row of a gay club, waiting for Pearl to get up in their faces, which she did frequently. It wasn't unusual to see her at a straight bar, or even a frat party, Miller said.
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Pearl was a consummate professional in her craft, a producer who knew how to put on a successful show and draw an audience from all walks of life, Miller said. She was a fixture after that, hosting and performing in the Thursday night drag show that was equal parts sass, comedy and Coty face powder. Pearl's drag show at the UC began on a Sunday night in 1991, when she hosted and performed in an AIDS benefit show, wearing a gown covered in pearls, recalls UC co-owner Mark Spangler. For a very short time, Miller and Pearl appeared on local-access cable with “The Miller and Pearl Show,” but complaints from viewers forced it off the air.
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