February 19, 2006 – Asbury Park Press
Laurel Hester succumbs to cancer

Laurel Hester succumbs to cancer
Asbury Park Press
February 19, 2006
 
By Margaret F. Bonafide
POINT PLEASANT --Laurel Hester, a 49-year-old police officer who reluctantly became a well-known gay rights activist, died of cancer early Saturday morning with her partner, Stacie Andree, by her side.

Hester's name became synonymous with pleas by the gay and lesbian community for marriage equality.

Hester was the root of the contention with the Ocean County freeholders, who had held out since last summer on granting her dying request for domestic partner benefits for county employees.

"I knew today was going to be the day," Andree said Saturday morning of Hester's death after making private funeral arrangements for her partner. "She was in a hospital bed, and I was an arm's length away. I believe your hearing is the last to go, and I just kept talking to her. I told her she was going to see her mom."

Hester's mother died in 1995 of emphysema, and her father died of cancer in 1993. Hester had cared for both in their final days.

Andree said Hester drew her last breath 4:18 a.m. but was pronounced dead at 8 a.m. by a hospice nurse.

Hester and Andree, who together own a home in Point Pleasant, registered as domestic partners Oct. 28, 2004. Hester had worked for the Ocean County Prosecutor's Office for 24 years and wanted to leave a pension death benefit to Andree.

But the Police and Fire Retirement System to which Hester belonged only allowed members to name spouses as beneficiaries. New Jersey law permits state employees in that system to leave their pensions to anyone, and also enables counties and municipalities to adopt that policy.

The freeholders had steadfastly refused to extend the pension system to nonspouse partners. The governing body held out until political pressure changed their minds, and they voted to approve the benefits in January, only after five other counties passed the resolution to allow the benefit.
Steven Goldstein, chairman of Garden State Equality, the gay and lesbian activist group that lobbied heavily on her behalf, said the news of Hester's death, though expected, was still painful.

"I cried, but it was a different kind of crying," he said. "She was in a lot of pain."

Hester was resting comfortably Friday night in a hospital bed in the bedroom of the house she shared with Andree as her partner cared for her in her final hours. Hester's dog, Boo Boo, one of two she owned, lay in her bed with her through the night. Andree said she knew that the end was close.
Hester's sister, Lynda Hester D'Orio, 48, of Kinnelon, and Andree's mother, Carol Andree, both of whom have been helping care for Hester, were also at the home Saturday.

"It was the best it could be in a bad situation," Carol Andree said of Hester's death. "Stacie and Boo were there with her by themselves, and it was absolutely beautiful and peaceful. It couldn't have been any better."

Goldstein called Hester the Rosa Parks in the fight for gay and lesbian civil rights. In college, Hester had started a hot line to help students and teens deal with issues of homosexuality.

"She changed people's minds," Goldstein said. "She never expected to be an activist. This was not a woman who wore the fact that she was a lesbian on her sleeve."

Hester faced many challenges as an investigator at the Ocean County Prosecutor's Office, a career that began in 1982 for Edward J. Turnbach, the Ocean County prosecutor at the time. Turnbach is now a Superior Court judge.

In December, Hester said "as an investigator, I had no desire to climb the ladder or to scheme to get promoted. I was happy as an investigator."
Hester never pulled her punches -- as an investigator or later when she became sick.

"I wouldn't want to sell my soul," she had said. "Playing politics would be selling my soul."

Dane Wells, Hester's former law enforcement partner at the Prosecutor's Office, said he was honored to have known Hester, and to have worked with her.

"Laurel was just an amazing woman, and Stacie is an incredible person, too," he said Saturday. Wells said Hester was always, above anything else, about integrity.

The last years of her career were lonely, Hester had said. She was officially retired as of Jan. 1 after running out of sick time.
Hester had said the freeholders' reaction to her benefits request was disappointing to her in many ways. But most of all, she said it was hurtful and damaging to young people to see homosexuals demeaned and having to beg to be treated with equality.

"It makes young people cynical," Hester said in December. "Young gay people want to hide more. There is a shame that is encapsulated around the gay lifestyle which we are combating again. It is so ingrained in our society. Fortunately, the last 10 or 20 years has changed all that, but (the Ocean County freeholders' resistance was) an unpleasant reminder we still have a long way to go."