Rachel Humphreys

Rachel Humphreys (October 18, 1952 – January 30, 1990) was a muse and romantic partner to musician Lou Reed. A transgender woman,

Early life She was born and raised in Bridgeton, New Jersey, and San Antonio, Texas. Humphreys was of Mexican Native descent, and her sister Gail Garcia told Reed biographer Aidan Levy: "We knew since [Rachel] was little [she] was gay. [She] used to like to play with Barbie dolls and dress up in girls' clothes."

Humphreys attended cosmetology school in Bayonne, New Jersey, and may have lived in Philadelphia at some point before meeting Reed. Reed later described their first meeting at a club in Greenwich Village: "I'd been up for days, as usual, and everything was at that superreal, glowing stage. I walked in there, and there was this amazing person, the incredible head, kind of vibrating out of it all. Rachel was wearing this amazing makeup and dress and I was obviously in a different world to anyone else in the place. Eventually I spoke and she came home with me."

Their relationship lasted from 1973 to early 1978, and they lived together as a couple for most of that time. The title track ends with the lyrics: "I'd like to send this one out to Lou and Rachel, and all the kids at [Public School] 192. Man, I'd swear, I'd give the whole thing up for you." Photos of the couple also appear on the cover of the 1977 compilation Walk on the Wild Side: The Best of Lou Reed.

In 1977, the pair had a public third anniversary party, which some of their friends interpreted as an informal wedding ceremony. The guitarist says Reed told him: "Do you understand, Quine—this is a person I was close to. And he is calling her a creature and 'thing.'" Quine stated that the conversation regarding Humphreys and Bangs ultimately ended the pair's friendship, and was a rare instance in which Reed acknowledged Humphreys after the end of their relationship.

Death Humphreys died January 30, 1990, at age 37, in the Hell's Kitchen section of Manhattan. Although Humphreys's official cause of death remains unknown,