November 17, 1938 – September 6, 2020 (age 81)
Joe Redburn, ‘father’ of Utah’s LGBT Community, has died……. .
Joe Redburn, the owner of several Salt lake City LGBT clubs over the years, starting with the Sun Tavern in the 70’s, died Sunday, September 6, 2020 at the Intermountain Medical Center. He was 81 years old.
Redburn was born November 17, 1938, in Laramie, Wyoming where he was raised and educated. He went to the University of Wyoming there and then Armed Forces Information School in Ft. Slocum, New York.
“In those days you either gave yourself up to the draft — which I did — or wait ‘til they drafted you,” he said. “I just wanted to get it over with. In those days, if you checked the box that you were gay they rejected you, so I didn’t. I went in actually lying to them. I was in the U.S. Army at Fort Riley in Kansas for two years. What we did was the news on local stations. Then when I got out, I went back to Laramie, and then I came over to Salt Lake to get a job here.”
With his ultra-deep bass voice, he began a long career in radio on KTKK — one of the first all-talk stations in the country during the Vietnam era.
Condolences and memories may be shared with the family at Franklin County Funeral Home.
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