Marty Lonn Larson, known mainly by the drag persona “Muffy Rosenberg,” was a classic ’80s queen. Muffy had the big earrings. The bigger hair. She danced on top of bar tables. She was a drag mother.
Now, she’s left the Des Moines’ drag scene in the hands of the next generation. Muffy died of heart failure May 13 at the age of 62.
For decades, she helped build the drag scene in Des Moines’ East Village. Muffy coordinated weekly shows and mentored anyone who needed help, both with drag and with life.
“When I met her, she was that old, bitter lady in the back of the bar that was like, ‘Girl, you look a mess. We gotta fix this,'” said Komplete Moon, one of her honorary drag daughters who no longer uses her given name and requested to be called only by her drag name. “And eventually, I moved in with her. She fixed me. She put me right together.”
Muffy’s family will hold a celebration of life in July. Several bars in Des Moines have held tribute shows since Muffy’s death.
Muffy was ‘a pillar of the community’
When the drag-centric gay bar Le Boi closed in 2015, it meant there was one less queer safe space, said Michael Avenarius, who performs as Crimson B. Rosenberg and was one of Muffy’s drag daughters. Some drag queens migrated to the Blazing Saddle, one of Iowa’s most well-known gay bars.
Muffy started coordinating which performers would be on the Saddle’s weekly rotation. She hosted events such as Tuesday trivia, up until her death. When she chose to become a drag mother, she called her family the Rosenbergs — or, as they were known in their circles, the Rosenbabes.
Muffy served two terms as the Empress, or elected leader, of the Imperial Court of All Iowa. The group is a chapter of what the court describes as one of the oldest and largest LGBTQ+ charitable organizations in the world and raises funds for charitable causes, often through drag shows.
During Muffy’s time as Empress, she started the Guardian Angel Scholarship Fund, which helps graduating high school seniors and post-secondary students fund their education. The scholarship is named in honor of drag queens who’ve died, who then become the “guardian angels” for recipients.
“She had a really eloquent way about helping everyone. And to me, that’s a pillar in the community,” Komplete Moon said.
Originally from Omaha, Muffy never let anyone forget that she won the title to be the very first Miss Max, named after a gay club there. She collected a variety of titles, including Miss Nebraska USofA, Miss Nebraska America, First Miss Iowa, Miss Gay Iowa USofA Classic, Miss Iowa USofA at Large and Grand Duchess of Iowa, according to her obituary.
Inspiring the next generation of drag performers
Drag isn’t just about performing on stage.
“It was always, ‘All right, girl, put your big-girl underpants on and get up on that stage and perform,'” Komplete Moon said.
When you feel like you’re part of “the island of misfit toys,” as Julian Castillo put it, finding a chosen family meant you didn’t have to go it alone anymore. Julian was part of Muffy’s drag family.
“The biggest thing about Muffy is the kindness, through and through. She wanted the best for everybody. Like she truly, truly did,” Avenarius said.
Julia Castillo saw several of Muffy’s performances while partying with friends in the ’80s, back when Muffy was in her prime. Decades later, after returning to Des Moines, getting married and having children, her son, Julian, came out as gay.
It wasn’t until she was showing her son photos of a drag queen she used to admire that they both realized it was Muffy, who had become Julian Castillo’s drag mom.
“Who would have known? After all those years, that she would have come back into my son’s life and be such an inspiration to him and raise him up in the drag world,” Julia Castillo said.
Muffy loved her son the way a mother loves her children, Julia Castillo said. Muffy loved him the way she, as his biological mother, did. Julia Castillo watched as her son grew into his own skin over the years, gaining confidence.
“I’m just so grateful that she was able to just take my child in and just love on him and nurture him and bring him up in the world that he absolutely loves,” Julia Castillo said.
Muffy helped build confidence among LGBTQ+ community
Julian Castillo now performs as drag queen Robin Graves. He joined the cast at the Saddle in 2016, soon after he started doing drag. In his words, he bothered Muffy and the bartenders to the point where they said, “OK, OK. We’ll keep an eye on you.”
After a show, Crimson and Vana B. Rosenberg came up to Julian Castillo, beaming. Muffy wanted to add Robin Graves to the Rosenberg family, they told him.
“It was like, ‘Oh my god, they see me.’ That means Muffy and Vana and Crimson believe in me,” he said. “That, for the gay soul, is so important to us. To see people that support us that are in our community that are older than us, have lived through this longer than us, that are like, ‘I did this, and I think you can also do this.'”
After Muffy died, Julian Castillo realized that he’s now part of the older generation that younger people will be looking up to. He has been having a lot of conversations with Vana B. Rosenberg, as two of the last remaining queens from an earlier era.
He will hold onto the stories Muffy told him. Not just about the technicalities of drag, but also the ones about people coming together to preserve queer spaces.
He remembers one story Muffy told him where men had started physically harassing her. Muffy was walking down the street with her drag luggage in tow when they surrounded her. Women Muffy knew saw it happening, ran over and “beat the guys off of Muffy with their high heels,” Julian Castillo said.
Muffy still walked into the bar after that and performed her show.
For Julian Castillo, drag is a refusal to be put down by anything else. It’s about choosing joy. It’s about being an inspiration to people who are afraid to live their lives.
“At the end of the day, I’m just a man in a wig. But in that wig, I can change lives,” he said. “I’m a rainbow target right now, and I’m choosing to lip sync to Lady Gaga, have fun, yell on the microphone … and doing it confidently, unapologetically.”
Stories like that are what keep the current performers going, he said. Knowing that people like Muffy had to fight to keep their heads held high keeps the current drag scene determined to stick around.
Lucia Cheng is a service and trending reporter at the Des Moines Register. Contact her at lcheng@gannett.com or 515-284-8132.
This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Muffy Rosenberg remembered for teaching Des Moines queens to stand tall
Reporting by Lucia Cheng, Des Moines Register / Des Moines Register
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
