Ingrid Wilhite

Wilhite was born in Boise, Idaho and raised in Kuna, Idaho, the daughter of George Wesley Wilhite and Wilma Joy Ax Wilhite.^[2] She learned to play accordion as a child.^[3] She attended Rutgers University,^[4] where she created a comic, Pheminist Phunnies, for the Caellian, a campus publication, co-chaired the school's Gay and Lesbian Alliance,^[5] and graduated in 1982.^[6]

Wilhite moved to San Francisco after college, and worked in advertising, editing commercial videos. She wrote, directed and edited short independent films, often comedic,^[7] and mostly shown at gay and lesbian film festivals.^[8][9][10] Her film credits included Fun with a Sausage (1984),^[11][12] L'Ingenue (1985),^[13] It's a Lezzie Life: A Dyke-u-mentary (1987)^[14] The Lesbian Impress Card (1990),^[15][16] Pet Names,^[14][17] Mister Sisters (1994),^[18] A Religious Experience (1997),^[19] Hooter Polka, and Radical Harmonies (2002).^[20] She also worked on Seen Anything Good Lately? (1997), a GLAAD documentary on television representations of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people,^[21] and made an educational video on cat adoption, Whisker Tips.^[4] Writer Kate Bornstein described Wilhite in 1991 as "my favorite lesbo laughmaker".^[22]

Wilhite played accordion in a musical duo, Cabaret Tormento.^[4]

Wilhite was a second-place winner at the Idaho State Accordion Festival in 1967.^[23] Her Fun with a Sausage won an award in the Super 8 category at the 1983 San Francisco Gay and Lesbian Film Festival.^[13]

Wilhite died in Berkeley in 2007, from brain cancer, at the age of 48. She was survived by her partner, Saundra Symonds.^[4] Her master tapes and other materials are in the Outfest UCLA Legacy Project for LGBTQ Film Preservation.^[24]