Jeffrey Darling first arrived in Portland in 2002. He’d left his small amish town, with its horses and buggies and folks that "warsh there clothes in the crick" behind to pursue something bigger. He’d been a musical theater major at the local college and sang in Jazz choirs, concert choirs, and church for many years and was well known in the community for being a little strange, a little sissy, and having a whole lot of talent.

 

While working as a pizza chef in Portland for Whole Foods Market, he met a tall, gangly, oddly dressed gentleman named Mark Thomas. Thomas invited Darling to the upcoming Sissyboy performance, and Darling says he knew that his life would change forever. Sure enough, within the next month, the opportunity arose for Darling to perform with the troupe, and as he got up on stage he was introduced as “Vagina Ross”. Over time his stage name was changed to “Fannie Mae Darling” and although Darling went on to portray several other onstage characters, the poor, victimized, and beautiful Fannie Mae Darling became the most notorious of all of Darling’s personas.

 

Through a friendship and shared house, Zebra, Lee Kyle aka Splendora, Devan McGrath and Jeffrey Darling went on to make three movies (“Splendora Dearest”, “What Ever Happened to Fannie Mae”, and “Gay Gardens”) as well as a stage version of Jean Jenets "The Maids".

 

Though plagued with many drug and alcohol dependencies, Jeffrey Darling has made us laugh and entertained us for several years. Fannie Mae has been put aside for the time being, but will always be loved and remembered as an integral part of Portland’s Premiere Trash-tastic group SissyBoy.