American performer and writer The Lady Chablis was BOTD in 1957. Born in Quincy, Florida, she was assigned male at birth and given the name Benjamin Knox. Raised by her father in New York City, she moved to Atlanta in her teens and began performing in drag bars, adopting the name The Lady Chablis. In the 1980s, she moved to Savannah, Georgia, and became a well-known community figure, attracting gay and straight audiences to her performances at Club One. She was a prominent character in John Berendt’s 1994 non-fiction novel Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, appearing as Berendt’s guide to the sexual underworld of Savannah and reeling off salty one-liners (“Two tears in a bucket/Motherfuckit”). The book became an international bestseller, propelling her to fame. She published a memoir Hiding My Candy: The Autobiography of the Grand Empress of Savannah in 1996. She played herself in Clint Eastwood’s lacklustre film version of Midnight, giving the film’s best performance and becoming the first trans actress to play a trans role in a major Hollywood film. She continued performing in Savannah until her death in 2016, aged 59. A pioneer for trans representation, she achieved the ultimate posthumous drag tribute, by being impersonated in Season 7 of Ru Paul’s Drag Race All Stars.