Passages: Bryan Marché of Actor, Liz Kennedy, Dana Tillou, Victor Shanchuk
Obituaries: Marking those who have moved on from the WNY arts and culture scenes
Bryan Marché-March 15, 1955-March 19, 2026
Bryan Marché, guitarist with the bands Actor, the Evidents and Crash Pony in the 1980s, died March 19 in his family home.
While he was known for his kindness and humor and his love of sports, especially hockey, he was also a well-respected guitarist and songwriter/composer. The apple did not fall far from the tree, as his late father, Theodore, aka Teddy, had been influential in the music industry as well, working for CBS Records.
Early in his music career, Marché was notably a member of popular bands from the ‘80s such as The Evidents, Actor and Crash Pony. It was then that he met bandmate, Jessie Galante, who had this to say in a tribute post on social media: “I’m deeply saddened to share the passing of my dear friend and former Actor band mate, Bryan Marché. Bryan and I go back many years, and the music we shared during that time will always be a meaningful part of my life. Only a few weeks before his passing, we reconnected and had begun talking about coming together for an Actor reunion with bandmates Bobby Wilczak and Leon Hopkins, which makes this loss feel even more profound. Bryan had a true passion for music, and a kindness and honesty that I will always remember. On a personal level, he holds a cherished place in my life that I will always carry with me. My heart goes out to everyone who knew and loved him. Rest peacefully Bryan…”
As for this author’s personal connection with Marché, he was a colleague and co-worker who I knew from both Horizon Human Services and the NYSED-ACESS-VR office. He was well liked and friendly with everyone. Many was the time he would stop by my office to jaw about musical gear, and his ever- evolving tastes in music.
In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the American Diabetes Association and/or the School of Rock Buffalo location.
— By Ida Goeckel
Elizabeth “Liz” Kennedy, Dec. 3, 1939-May 23, 2026
Elizabeth “Liz” Lapovsky Kennedy, the co-author of “Boots of Leather, Slippers of Gold” and founder of the Women’s Studies College at the University at Buffalo, one of the first in the country, died May 23 after a long battle with Parkinson’s Disease. She was 86.
Kennedy was an icon in the gender studies movement and lesbian history. She returned to America after doing ethnographic work in Colombia, her obituary says, to “join the faculty of American Studies at SUNY Buffalo in 1969, Liz collaborated with students and local women’s liberation activists, offering the first Women’s Studies course, ‘Women in Contemporary Society,’ in 1970. In 1975 Liz left her marriage, coming out, and partnering with Barbara ‘Bobbi’ Prebis, a pioneering lesbian and labor activist in Buffalo. In 1978, along with her student Madeline Davis, Liz initiated a 13-year community oral history project about pre-Stonewall era working-class lesbian life in Buffalo, resulting in the book ‘Boots of Leather, Slippers of Gold: The History of a Lesbian Community’ (Rutledge, 1993).”
Kennedy left UB in 1998 to become chair of the Department of Gender and Women’s Studies at the University of Arizona until her retirement to emeritus status. Her partner, Prebis, died earlier this year, on Feb. 4.
In a post on Facebook, the Buffalo-Niagara LGBTQ History Project said, “‘Boots of Leather’ was perhaps the first scholarly book to take lesbian oral histories seriously, and the first to center a working class lesbian history. Liz, Madeline, and their collaborators collected dozens of interviews with pre-Stonewall bar femmes and butches, and it took 20 years to complete the book, which remains a classic. Lesbians and queer historians the world over have Liz and Madeline to thank for their thorough documentation of butch-femme culture. And we at the History Project owe them for not having to start our work from scratch, but build on the tremendous foundations they had created.”
Dana Eller Tillou, Apr 13, 1937-May 20, 2026
Noted art dealer and philanthropist Dana Eller Tillou died on May 20 in Buffalo. The son of artist Virginia Eller Tillou and Manley Tillou, he was a lifelong resident of the city and knownn as a supporter of the Burchfield Penney Art Center, as a board member of the Buffalo AKG Art Museum and as a longtime member of the Queen City Jazz Club.
For 64 years, he owned and operated Dana Tillou Fine Arts, known for its colonial-era furniture, 19th and 20th century American and British paintings, contemporary art and American folk art.
According to a 2020 story by Mark Sommer in The Buffalo News, Tillou’s mother was part of a community of artists and others that included Seymour Knox, former Albright Art Gallery director Gordon Smith and painters Seymour Drumlevitch, Virginia Cuthbert and Martha Visser’t Hooft, all of whom the younger Tillou came to know.
He opened up a gallery with his brother in 1961, then one on his own in 1966, after he brother moved on to a gallery in New England. The News story said that Jackie Onassis was among Dana Tillou’s customers.
He closed his shop in 2024, but kept selling art and antiques from his home even in retirement.
Tillou’s family will be present on June 5, from 3-7 PM at the Delaware Chapel of the Amigone Funeral HOme, 1132 Delaware Ave. (near West Ferry). A Memorial Service will be celebrated on June 6 at 2 p.m. at Westminster Presbyterian Church, 724 Delaware Ave. In lieu of flowers, donations can be made in Tillou’s name to Roswell Park Cancer Institute or Hospice Buffalo, Inc.
Victor Shanchuk Jr. , Feb 28, 1940-May 16, 2026
Noted artist, photographer and teacher Victor Shanchuck Jr. died on May 16 at age 86.
Shanchuk was a teacher in the Buffalo City Schools for 36 years, including the final 20 years at City Honors. He also taught at his alma mater, Buffalo State College (now Buffalo State University) and at Villa Maria College.
In a Facebook tribute, Buffalo collector and artist Gerald Mead said, “Victor was a gifted photographer and painter, inspiring and beloved art educator and community volunteer who was actively engaged with many arts organizations in WNY over the decades, including the Artists Gallery, AAO Gallery and the Burchfield Penney Art Center among others.”
His work was seen at dozens of exhibitions across Western New York and beyond, and he served as curator for numerous exhibitions, including Milton Rogovin’s “”From the Western Door to the Lower West Side.” He also served as president of the Buffalo Society of Artists. He also painted one of the “Herd About Buffalo” bisons during that public art effort in 2000.
In addition to his own art, he influenced generations of artists as a teacher. In the exhibit description to his 2019 “Chemical Light” display at the Burchfield Penney, it was noted, “His commitment to developing the photography area at City Honors led to a notable number of students who later went on to be recognized for their art and scholarship. Andrea Mancuso of the Buffalo-based VIROCODE, celebrated documentary photographer Gregory Halpern, philosopher and film theorist David LaRocca, and experimental photographer and educator John Opera all studied and worked closely with Shanchuk.”
A Funeral Liturgy was held May 22 at St. George Orthodox Church. Memorials may be made in his memory to the Burchfield Penney Art Center.
Editors note: One of the losses with the decline of our daily news media has been the loss of a great obituary section. Obituaries in the daily paper weren’t the small print, paid pieces. Those were considered “death notices.” Obituaries were the stories summing up the lives of the significant people who had left this sphere. For decades Dale Anderson turned it into an art form, capturing the lives of the famous and the interesting with equal aplomb. But Dale retired last year, and The Buffalo News largely relies on paid death notices to note passings; if your family is willing to pay, you get in.
So The Buffalo Hive is taking on a new task: Passages. Our goal is not to note the arrangements surrounding wakes and funerals (although those may be present), but to note the deaths of people who are significant in our community’s arts and cultural communities, remembering their achievements. We don’t charge for this; we regard it as news coverage. But we will have to rely on people letting us know when we have loss people who are big parts of the fabric of our communities. So please email the editor at editor@thebuffalohive.com when you hear of someone’s death. While time and staffing constraints may not allow us to cover every one of them and we’re sure to miss some people, we will endeavor to do our best to mark these passings … hence the name of this feature.
— Elmer Ploetz
Editor-in-Chief
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Feel free to add your memories through the comments section on this page.
If you have a suggestion for someone who should be included in Passages, please forward the information to editor@thebuffalohive.com.
