Divine's Headstone

Glenn Milstead, aka Divine, would have appreciated the fact that his last home is a few blocks from Towson Town Center, where the flamboyant star could find all the makeup and glittery garb his heart­–and his roles in John Waters movies–desired. Millstead, his parents, and some relatives are buried in Prospect Hill Cemetery, smack-dab in the middle of suburban Baltimore, Maryland. It’s also a few miles from where he was born on October 19, 1945.  

It’s relatively easy to find his headstone; it’s the only one flanked by a small rainbow-colored unicorn and a glass sunflower wearing gold mesh earrings. The two roses engraved on the front are painted red, and “U R DEVINE” is scrawled above his name, probably in lipstick. Among the mementos placed around the grave recently: a strand of pearls, a pair of glasses with silver-glitter frames, and a tube of “Pink Flamingo” lipstick, a nod to the 1972 flick that brought Millstead (and Waters) out of the underground and into cinematic history. 

During an interview on Fresh Air in February 1988, he said, “I’m not a drag queen. I’m a character actor. I never set out in the beginning of my career just to play female roles. But fortunately, or unfortunately for me, they were the only things offered to me.”  

A month later, he died of an enlarged heart while filming an episode of Married... with Children in Los Angeles. His role? A man named Uncle Otto.