Today Marcus Leatherdale wished the late Cookie Mueller happy birthday.

The Baltimore-born starlette of many John Water’s films passed from this life back in 1989.

Cookie exalted in her childhood home stuck between the woods, a state mental hospital, and the railroad tracks.

“There was no way I could turn good against those odds.”

The bleached blonde held a high opinion of her badness and deserted her hometown for San Francisco in the late 60s after which she returned to Baltimore to star in Water’s FEMALE TROUBLE and PINK FLAMINGO.

I met Cookie through the photographer Anthony Scibelli. He shot a photo-roman of me, her, and Klaus Nomi. We had a good time together. She was more importantly an artisic muse for Nan Goldin.

We partied together on more than one occasion.

The actress-turned-writer liked playing it tough, but I always thought she was sweet, especially after hearing her tale of writing a book about the Johnston Flood, which he stuck in the history section of her local library.

“Someone must have checked it out and never returned it.” She was proud of that accomplishment.

Sadly she succumbed to AIDS and her ashes were spread on the dunes of he beloved Provincetown.

She left us with this thought.

“Fortunately I am not the first person to tell you that you will never die. You simply lose your body. You will be the same except you won’t have to worry about rent or mortgages or fashionable clothes. You will be released from sexual obsessions. You will not have drug addictions. You will not need alcohol. You will not have to worry about cellulite or cigarettes or cancer or AIDS or venereal disease. You will be free.”