Maxine Andrews of the Andrews Sisters

You’re probably familiar with the Andrews Sisters, or at least their music, but did you know that Maxine Andrews was a lesbian who had to adopt her partner in order to protect the legal status of their relationship?

Welcome back to Jester Queers. My name’s Amanda, and I’m a public historian of queer history. I could do an entire video series about Laverne, Maxine, and Patty Andrews, the daughters of immigrants who grew up in a Minneapolis neighborhood called Near North and then went on to sell a hundred million records, have more Billboard Top 10 hits than either Elvis or The Beatles, have one of the most successful collaborations in musical history with Bing Crosby, have guest appearances on every major radio and TV show from 1935 to 1967, and star in more Hollywood films than any other singing group in American history.

Modern artists are still influenced by their intricate harmonies and rhythmic sense. Multiple volumes can be and have been written about the Andrews Sisters and their music, but one story that is almost always left out is the fact that Maxine, who is known lovingly as “the one on the left” to their fans, was a lesbian.

Maxine did marry a man, music publisher Lou Levy, in 1941 when she was 25, and they adopted two children. They divorced in 1949 but remained lifelong friends. After her divorce, Maxine—Mackie to her friends—fell in love with a woman, and they were in a relationship for 13 years. But Maxine didn’t consider herself a lesbian. She thought that the person she’d fallen in love with just happened to be a woman and that after they split, her next long-term relationship would probably be with a man.

That is not what happened.

Maxine Andrews met Linda Wells at Thanksgiving dinner at Elaine Stritch’s house in the early 1970s. Maxine would have been around 55, so Linda was 26. They were the Sarah and Holland of the 1970s and ’80s. Maxine and Linda had actually crossed paths once before when Linda was a teenager because Maxine was friendly with Linda’s parents. But because of their age gap, I want to make it clear that Linda was not raised around Maxine, and their meeting that Thanksgiving in Los Angeles was nothing more than chance.

Linda said they were basically inseparable after that Thanksgiving. And by 1974, Linda said she had a moment while they were out at Uncle Charlie’s South, which was one of the places to be if you were gay in New York City in the 1970s, when she looked at Maxine and realized: that is the person I want to spend the rest of my life with.

According to Linda, being gay was not a central focus of Maxine’s life at all. Her art was. Her singing was. Her ability to please an audience. Her devilish way of getting into an audience and making them feel as if they were sitting in her living room.

So they were closeted to the public because they didn’t think that their relationship was anyone else’s business. But they were out to all of their friends and family, and they socialized as a couple.

Neither of them thought about needing to protect their relationship legally until Maxine had a heart attack while she was performing in Chicago in 1982 and required emergency quadruple bypass surgery. Although they’d been together for something like a decade at this point, Linda had no authority to consent to Maxine’s medical procedures and technically couldn’t even visit her in the hospital.

Living wills weren’t really a thing yet. The first one wasn’t even created until 1967, and it took until 1992 for all 50 states to legally sanction living wills.

So a friend of theirs suggested a solution that gay couples in the United States have been relying on since the 18th century: Maxine would have to adopt Linda as her daughter, thus granting Linda all of the rights and privileges of being a family member. Not only would she be able to make medical decisions for Maxine if the need arose again, she would also be able to inherit all of their combined assets if Maxine died—something that could be overridden by a legal family member even if Maxine left everything to Linda in her will.

There are very good reasons to criticize marriage equality being one of the pillars of the modern gay rights movement. But people who build lives together without the option of marrying and gaining all of the rights and privileges of a legally recognized spouse are in danger—not just of being unable to participate in decision-making on behalf of their partners, but also of losing everything that they and their partners have built together.

Fortunately, Maxine and Linda listened to their friend Carol, and the adoption was complete less than a month after Maxine’s emergency bypass. The two had another 10 happy years together before Maxine died of a heart attack on October 21, 1995, at the age of 79.

Upon hearing the news of her death, Bob Hope said, “She was more than part of the Andrews Sisters, much more than a singer. She was a warm and wonderful lady who shared her talent and wisdom with others.”

Linda Wells is still alive and is currently working on both a biography and a documentary about Maxine’s life.

That’s it for today. As always, more information, including sources and further reading, is available in the usual place.