💚🍸Legends from the Archives: Billie Boots AKA Florida’s Queen Mother (1998) 📸 Eric Brown Yaughn 💛Text by OurCommunityRoots.com: Billie Boots was an entertainer out of Daytona Beach. Billie started performing at an early age, when as an orphan, she ran away and joined a carnival where she lived as a woman stripping until she was old enough to work. The owner of the carnival also owned a night club in Miami Beach and Billie would work there in the Fall and Winter when the carnival was not running. One of Billie’s last known recorded performances was in 1998 at the Hollywood Barn Door in Daytona Beach for the documentary ‘Queens for a Night.’ In that film Billie talked about the requirements when she first started doing female impersonation and how you had to have a male name. She also had to come to the bar in a men’s suit, do the show and leave dressed as a man at the end of the night. As a consequence, she would have to take off her wig at the end of a show, something she continued to do years later when this was no longer a requirement. Billie talked about being arrested and laws that existed at that time where on one block it was against the law to be dressed as a woman on stage and another block over in another jurisdiction it was against the law to be dressed as a woman in the audience. When living in New York City, Billie made costumes for many big stars like Totie Fields, Lena Horne, LaVern Baker, and Ruth Brown. Billie also traveled with Tubby Boots, her partner of 21 years, for a period of time. When one of the venues she worked at closed she moved and worked out of Nashville. Billie also performed at the Grand Central and the Old San Juan in late 70s Orlando. Billie’s legacy lives on through the work she did for AIDS Coalition and Our House, for which she received numerous awards. . . . . . #legendsofdrag #draglegend #dragicon #dragroyalty #dragworld #dragqueensofinstagram #queerhistory #draghistory #dragherstory #lgbthistory #billieboots #floridadrag #fldrag #missflorida #missfloridafi #floridalegend #floridadragqueen #floridasqueenmother