Aleshia Brevard, Sf Drag Star And Transgender Pioneer, Dies At 79

Aleshia Brevard, a Marilyn Monroe impersonator at Finocchio’swho went on to transgender surgery and a career in television and movies, died July 1 at home in her apartment in the Santa Cruz County town of Scotts Valley. The cause of death was pulmonary fibrosis, said Joyce Nordquist, Ms. Brevard’s landlord and friend of 60 years. “Within a year of that life-changing surgery I was balancing a showgirl’s headdress at the Dunes Hotel,” she wrote. “Aleshia was a true pioneer who never lost her zest for life,” said Stryker, who featured Ms.