Patrick Haggerty Country Singer Obituary

Patrick Haggerty passed away from complications of a stroke on October 31, 2022. He was 78.

The American country musician Patrick Haggerty was a lead singer and guitarist of the country music band Lavender Country. The band formed in 1972, self-titled 1973 album is the first known gay-themed album in country music history.

Patrick Haggerty was born on September 27, 1944 and raised on a dairy farm near Port Angeles, Washington. His father Charles Edward Haggerty (1901–1961), was a dairy farmer, while his mother Asylda Mary Remillard (1915–1999), was a homemaker, who later became a teacher following the death of her husband.

Haggerty attended Port Angeles Senior High in Port Angeles, Washington, from 1958 to 1962, where he was a “pep promoter.

Following college, he joined the Peace Corps but was discharged in 1966 for being gay. He later became an artist and an activist with the local chapter of the Gay Liberation Front after moving to Seattle to pursue graduate studies at the University of Washington.

After coming out in 1969, Patrick became very involved with the gay rights movement and became a socialist after “cutting cane” in Cuba in the early-1970s.

Following disbanding Lavender Country in 1976, Haggerty ran two unsuccessful campaigns for political office, once for Seattle City Council and once as an independent candidate for a seat in the Washington House of Representatives, and continued to work as gay rights and anti-racism activist.

Patrick Haggerty was married to “J.B.” Broughton, an African American retired Navy man. He has two children, daughter Robin Boland (née Thetford) (a biological child with lesbian friend Lois Thetford), and son Amilcar Navarro (adopted and co-parented with his biological mother Linda Navarro).

Patrick Haggerty’s funeral arrangements are yet to be announced by the family.