Former Polk sex worker mourned
Published 09/05/2013
by Seth Hemmelgarn
A man once known as "the most beautiful" sex
worker on San Francisco's Polk Street has died.
The death of David Royal Lundy Jr., 43, also known as Corey
Longseeker, serves as the latest mark in the passing of the Polk neighborhood,
which was once crowded with gay bars and hustlers, as a queer mecca.
Mr. Lundy, who's also being remembered for his kind, gentle
nature, was found dead August 21 in his Civic Center apartment. The San
Francisco Medical Examiner's office, which confirmed his death, won't publicly
release the cause or manner for months, but a 2009
San Francisco Bay
Guardian story told of Mr. Lundy's
struggles with AIDS, schizophrenia, and methamphetamine use (
http://www.sfbg.com/2009/03/18/rise-and-fall-polk-street-hustler).
Joey Plaster, who wrote the
Guardian
piece, was also behind the documentary
Polk
Gulch: The story of Corey Longseeker.
Mindy Talmadge, a spokeswoman for the San Francisco Fire
Department, said in an email that a paramedic unit responded to a report of an
approximately 40-year-old dead man at Mr. Lundy's building at 365 Fulton Street
the day he died, but she couldn't confirm that Mr. Lundy was the deceased
person.
Pastor Megan Rohrer is executive director of the Welcome
Ministry, a group based in a church near Polk Street that provides food,
housing referrals, and other services. Rohrer, who knew Mr. Lundy for years,
said he'd been known as "the most beautiful" sex worker in the Polk
neighborhood after his arrival more than 20 years ago, and that his death
symbolizes "an end of the generation of sex workers and gay culture on
Polk Street," where there's now only one gay bar.
But Mr. Lundy, who was gay, had more than looks going for
him.
"He was a poet, and he was known for being very gentle
and being a good listener and being a good friend," said Rohrer.
However, as the neighborhood changed, so did Mr. Lundy.
"I think what happened is that when HIV and AIDS
decimated the Polk Street culture, that had a big effect on his ability to get
tricks," said Rohrer. "His life started to deteriorate at the same
time the sex work culture on Polk Street started to deteriorate."
Mr. Lundy had suffered side effects from HIV medications
when they first came out, and in later years, still wouldn't take the drugs he
had been prescribed, said Rohrer.
"He lost himself in San Francisco," said his
mother, Wendy Lundy.
Although she usually hadn't known how to reach Mr. Lundy
after he left the Midwest when he was about 18, Wendy Lundy, 62, of Menahga,
Minnesota, knew that he had lived on the streets for most of his time in the
city. The last she'd heard from him was a letter he sent about a year and a
half ago. Besides his other health issues, Lundy said her son also had cancer.
During a phone interview last week, Lundy wept often as she
recalled the "very soft-spoken and kind-hearted, very, very
well-behaved" artistic child she still calls "Davey."
Mr. Lundy's father, David Lundy, 66, recalled Mr. Lundy as
"so kind."
"When the cat scratched him, and I went after the cat,
he defended the cat and said it was his fault because he scared the cat,"
said David Lundy.
"I miss him," he said. "He didn't let us know
how sick he was."
Dan Diez, who knew Mr. Lundy for decades but hadn't yet been
told of his death, recalled him as "the most gentle soul one could
know" who "had phenomenal male beauty second to none." But
knowing Mr. Lundy in his last years could be tough.
"I am not sure if he is still alive as he was in a very
weak state when I last saw him months ago," said Diez in an email last
week. "After knowing and helping him for about 20-plus years, I just could
not any longer take the unfortunate state he was in health-wise as it brought
me to severe sadness for him."
Rohrer said Mr. Lundy had come to California from Minnesota
"because his parents and him had disagreements about the fact that he was
gay."
Asked if she'd had trouble accepting her son's
homosexuality, Wendy Lundy said, "I guess you could say that."
However, she said that they had never had a conversation about him being gay
before he left for California.
"He never showed signs," she said.
During a Christmas visit to Minnesota around three years
ago, "he said he'd tried it," she said. "At that time he had
decided that that wasn't for him, but I guess he didn't really know, so to me
he was probably back and forth."
"I guess I could have accepted anything if he would
have been closer," said Wendy Lundy, who added, "I always hoped that
he would come back to live in Minnesota."
In San Francisco, there will be a memorial at 3 p.m.,
September 14, at Old First Presbyterian Church, 1751 Sacramento Street.
Services in Minnesota are also planned.
In addition to Mr. Lundy's parents in Menahga, other
survivors include brothers Jeramiah, of Park Rapids, Minnesota, Joshua, of
Blaine, Minnesota; and several nieces, aunts, uncles, and cousins.
