When world-famous female impersonator Chilli Pepper would take the stage at The Baton Show Lounge in the 1980s and '90s it wasn't uncommon to see a celebrity like Madonna or Janet Jackson in the audience of the North Side club.
She was a guest on shows like "Donahue" and "Oprah" where she spoke with dignity and clarity and helped educate millions of viewers about the art form, the gay community and AIDS.
"It impacted us on a very heartfelt level," said Tracy Baim, founder of The Windy City Times — a newspaper that bills itself as the voice of the city’s LGBTQ+ community .
"She will never be replicated. What she did for our community was truly selfless. You can't underestimate the power of entertainment to change the world," she said.
As a performer, she was known for her legs, off-the-shoulder blouses and pantomime performances of Gloria Gaynor's "I Will Survive."
Ms. Pepper, who was inducted into the Chicago LGBT Hall of Fame in 2007, died Wednesday at her Gold Coast studio apartment following a years-long battle with cancer.
It was the same apartment she moved into in 1971 when she first came to Chicago from Detroit. Over the years, she covered nearly every inch of her walls with art and photos of her with friends and celebrities.
"According to her, she was 39, every year she was 39," her friend Maya Douglas said with a laugh.
Other friends said "ageless" would best describe her.
"She was the ultimate trailblazer for the drag community," said friend and Chicago media personality Candace Jordan. "She was a mentor to a lot of young gays who were finding their way in the early years of the '70s."
In March, Ms. Pepper took a train from Chicago to Los Angeles, where she presented Oprah Winfrey with an award for promoting acceptance of LGBTQ people and issues from GLAAD, one of the nation's leading LGBTQ advocacy groups.
Winfrey sprang for her train ticket, according to Jordan. Ms. Pepper didn't drive or fly.
She got her start in female impersonation in Detroit, where she chose the name she'd use for the rest of her life, Chilli Pepper, an homage to her Chilean roots and "because she was red hot and fiery," said her close friend Cole Stolman.
Friends said she was very private and rarely shared details about her life growing up in Detroit.
Jim Flint, owner of The Baton Show Lounge, which for decades was located in River North before moving to Uptown in 2018, said Ms. Pepper was like family.
She was the winner of the first Miss Continental Pageant that Flint hosted at his lounge in 1981. It's since become a contest that draws talent from around the world.
She loved performing songs by African American musicians like Millie Jackson and Phyllis Hyman.
"She came on the scene and here was this white porcelain goddess with flaming red hair and she would do Black music," said fellow performer Dina Jacobs.
"She was born a natural entertainer, and also born a part of the LGBTQ community, and those two kind of came together and the legend was born. ... It was in her genes. She could not have done anything else; she could not have been a bank teller or a lawyer or worked at a grocery store," said Stolman.
"One of the most touching things she said recently was, 'It was such a full life, but it seemed to have gone by so quickly,'" said friend Tom Segal. " "And I think when you're having fun, time flies."
In a Chicago Magazine story published in 2017, Ms. Pepper told the late writer Bill Zehme that she doesn't share her given name ("Why would I? My mother doesn’t even call me that.") and that transitioning never interested her ("I’m comfy in my skin.")
She also told Zehme:
"I don’t have power. I don’t have money. You know what I do have? Fame."
Numerous tributes on social media include posts from her friends chef Art Smith, Oprah's former personal chef; and Alpana Singh, the sommelier, restaurateur and former host of WTTW's "Check Please."
"She was a fantasy of her own creation and to enter her world was a privilege and experience one never forgets," Singh said in an Instagram post.
