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Cornell University

Trans Jazz Musician Billy Tipton at Home

Jeff Iovannone, Master’s Student in Historic Preservation Planning

Photograph of Billy Tipton

This loose black and white snapshot photograph, taken circa 1950s, depicts trans masculine jazz musician Billy Tipton lounging at home with his dog while reading a Spokane, Washington, newspaper. At the height of his career, Tipton left the jazz music scene to start a family with his wife, Kitty Kelly. Tipton, perhaps, simply wanted a quiet domestic life in a mid-sized city over a public career and the limelight.

Tipton was born in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, in 1914. After graduating from high school, he began living publicly as a man and entered the jazz scene. He played in big bands and combos and, in 1951, formed the Billy Tipton Trio. The trio performed at Elks Lodges and Veterans of Foreign Wars posts and recorded an album in 1956. Tipton’s story received national news coverage when, following his death from an untreated ulcer in 1989, he was publicly outed as transgender.

Tipton’s “outing” represents a form of harm, but his life, nevertheless, inspired future generations of trans masculine people. Amos Mac, a trans photographer and filmmaker, describes Tipton as “someone living authentically and doing what he had to to survive.” This photograph—a man relaxing with a beloved pet while reading the paper—perfectly captures such a moment of humanity and authenticity.

This photograph is unexpected because it gives insight into Tipton’s everyday life behind the persona of the jazzman and the sensationalized depiction his story later received in mainstream media. Tipton’s relationship with his animal companion, and the fact his family saved this photo, illustrates how queer people create alternative forms of kinship and connection in an often unwelcoming world. The photo was presumably taken by Kitty, and her documentation of this ordinary scene suggests the bond she and Billy shared.

Source

Loose photo of Billy Tipton. Billy Tipton photographs, #7767, Box 1, Folder 2, Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections, Cornell University Library.

https://rmc.library.cornell.edu/EAD/htmldocs/RMM07767.html

Bibliography

Coleman, Bud. 2020. “Death of Transgender Jazz Musician Billy Tipton.” Salem Press Encyclopedia. https://search-ebscohost-com.proxy.library.cornell.edu/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ers&AN=96775821&site=eds-live&scope=site.

Halberstam, Jack. “Telling Tales: Brandon Teena, Billy Tipton, and Transgender Biography.” In Passing: Identity and Interpretation in Sexuality, Race, and Religion, edited by María Carla Sánchez and Linda Schlossberg, 13–37. Sexual Cultures. New York, NY: New York University Press, 2001. https://search-ebscohost-com.proxy.library.cornell.edu/login.aspx?direct=true&db=mzh&AN=2001870511&site=eds-live&scope=site.

Middlebrook, Diane Wood. Suits Me: The Double Life of Billy Tipton. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1998.

No Ordinary Man, dir. Aisling Chin-Yee and Chase Joynt, 2020.

Skidmore, Emily. True Sex: The Lives of Trans Men at the Turn of the Twentieth Century. New York: New York University Press, 2017.