![]() Allen oversaw a polite, congenial operation that fostered a relaxed social atmosphere for customers, some of whom drove in from distant suburbs to join their friends. Each year, her customers donated funds to the Lesbian Community Cancer Project through the Lost & Found’s Adopt-an-Angel program.Īt the bar, Allen sponsored several women’s sports teams, and the Lost & Found serves as a “home” for many women of all ages. In the years following Christensen’s 1986 death from cancer, Allen helped to raise thousands of dollars for individuals and groups fighting the disease. Allen’s bar has served as a starting point for generations of Chicago lesbians and is the oldest lesbian bar in the city. ![]() In the 1960s and 1970s, Allen and her partner resisted police harassment as well as enforcement of an ordinance that prohibited women and men from dressing in clothes that supposedly belonged to the opposite sex. Allen joined it in 1973 as Christensen’s lover and business partner. The business was founded by the late Shirley Christensen, herself a pioneer supporter of gay and lesbian activism in Chicago. A longtime owner of the city’s oldest lesbian bar, Lost & Found, Ava Allen maintained it as a home away from home for generations of lesbians and, through it, helped to raise thousands of dollars to fight cancer and meet women’s health needs since the club opened in 1965.
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