Calling him “The drag queen who changed my life,” a Georgia Voice columnist has written a loving tribute to the late John ‘Tweeka’ Barber, an Orlando drag performer who died Oct. 2011 of a rare and aggressive form of cancer. Barber was just 38 years old.
“When he plopped down on that couch to introduce himself to me I knew I was hanging with royalty. There must have been something about me that told him I needed a friend,” writes Bill Kaelin in his Aug. 9 column.
Barber lives on locally via The Barber Fund, a foundation founded and run by Blue Starr which helps people battling cancer pay for a variety of things—mortgages, power bills, medical bills, phone bills, groceries—and even helps families with pet sitting during a loved one’s illness. In 2014, under Blue’s leadership, the Fund hit a remarkable milestone – 501c3 status, meaning it is officially classified as a nonprofit and organizations can claim donations as tax-deductible.
Watermark founder Tom Dyer wrote his own tribute to Barber shortly after his death.
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