By Sarah Taylor
Walter Cole was born in 1930 in a small, company house in Linnton. He lived there throughout his childhood going to Linnton grammar school and then Lincoln. His father worked in a mill for a dollar a day.
He lived in the Yugoslavian neighborhood in a town composed of many immigrant communities. They ate beans most nights that his mother cooked on a wood cook stove. Warm water for a bath also came from the wood stove.
In his delightful autobiography, Darcelle describes going to the Linnton Community Center to skate, watch movies and do arts and crafts. He describes the stores and main street of the Linnton of his childhood.
He describes with delight taking the streetcar to Portland where his mother and he would go to a movie and eat pork noodles.
Like many children of the era, his mother died when he was young and he was left to be cared for by aunts and a grandmother. His aunt who came to care for him was fun and bought a piano and sheet music and led the neighborhood in singing.
He also describes the bullies of Linnton and how they called him “sissy boy.”
After graduation, he married his Linnton girlfriend who lived in the Italian part of Linnton and what good food they cooked. He served in the army and went on to have two children with his wife. He took his army money and began investing in small cafes that were turned down by urban renewal. Eventually, he would buy the tavern that would become the world famous Darcelle XV’s. He went on to recognize that he was gay and to marry his long time partner, Roxie. Despite divorce, he remained close to his Italian Linnton wife and children.
He is remembered by many for his generosity and community spirit. He was given the Spirit of Portland award and sang with the Portland Symphony.
In Linnton, many still remember him asking to have his birthday parties at the Community Center and the fundraiser he did for the Center in 2003. He always championed the town–the Oregon Encyclopedia, in their article about him called it “the scrappy NW neighborhood of Linnton.”
He brought the mayor out to see Linnton in a limousine, to plead the case for a riverfront downtown. Although he is known for his advocacy for the LGBQT community and his long-standing drag show in Old Town, he is also remembered for his love of family and community that took its roots in the town of Linnton.
Watch the Oregon Experience episode on his life on OPB or read his autobiography, Just Call Me Darcelle.