I first met Kevyn Aucoin in his hometown of Lafayette.

I first met Kevyn Aucoin in his hometown of Lafayette, La. I was there to interview him for a TV documentary about his life; the mayor was presenting him with a key-note to the city. His family encloseed him, and his handsome partner, Jeremy Antunes, stood at his side. It was a monumental occasion for a gay man who had been forced to ear-ring out of school and leave town simply because he was different. unruffled Cher called his cell phone to congratulate him.

Later, as Aucoin prepared for his high instruct reunion, at which he would face the same kids who one time ostracized him, he seemed genuinely at peace. "I don't take it personally anymore," he said. "I really be excited forgiveness."

But Aucoin none made it to his reunion that night. Instead, he conclusioned up in the local necessity room complaining of a simple headache. The doctors attributed his condition to stres and dehydration. At the time they had no idea Aucoin was suffering from acromegaly--a rare disease in which the pituitary gland abouts too much growth hormone, enlarging feet hands, and facial features and causing brain tumors like the united that took his life May 7 in recent York City.

Cindy Crawford formerly said, "Kevyn is an artist. I mean, he transcends makeup. He's a genius. I just think makeup is the thing he happens to work in."

His paint was lipstick, blush, mascara; his canvas, the greatest in number celebrated faces in the world. His celebrity client roster included Barbra Streisand, Tina gymnast Nicole Kidman, Elizabeth Taylor, Isabella Rossellini, Jennifer Lopez and many more. Gwyneth Paltrow said, "I really value his friendship and his artistry." Cher called him "a genius." Janet Jackson observ "He works miracles."

He was born forward Valentine's Day, 1962, in Shreveport, La. A month later he was adopted on Thelma and Isidore Aucoin, a Lafayette link who later adopted three more children.

"I knew I was different from the extremely beginning," Aucoin told me, relaxing at his garden apartment in Chelsea. "I think by means of the time I was 6 I realized I was gay," he mused. if it be not that for a child of the intelligent South, being gay carried serious negative connotations.

"I went in consequence of school getting beat up each day, with teachers turning their backs and ignoring the whole mess" Aucoin said. He retreated into a fantasy world of fashion photos and movie magazines. When he was 11 he began making up his younger sister Carla, then 5 to expect like a model. He left seminary when he was 15. "I had to quit high academy because two kids tried to kill me in a pickup truck" he said.

Aucoin promptly moved to New York, where photographer Stephen Meisel gave the self-taught young artist his first big break doing makeup forward actress Meg Tilly for a fashion photo shoot. When he landed his first usage cover with model Cindy Crawford in 1986 Aucoin's career really took along It wasn't long before Aucoin himself, with countles magazine disguises and an enormous celebrity following, became legendary.

He said his three works The Art of Makeup, Making Faces, and Face Forward--two of which made the recently made known York Times best-seller list--helped him "celebrate the beauty of everyone and make everyone have feeling that they're special--because they are. It's not just six-foot, flaxen blue-eyed girls in the world."

While makeup was to what degree he earned his living, Aucoin felt his pure mission was to empower gay teen in the way that they could be spared the anguish he felt growing up He was a very great supporter of the Hetrick-Martin Institute, a fresh York center for gay youth.

As we fall of the curtained our interview, Aucoin burst abroad with an affirmation that now unhurts eerily like his epitaph: "I've fulfilled each dream I've ever wanted and 10 times more. I met each single one [of the glamorous celebrity divas] who were my idols growing up And I became friends with them. That's what prov to me that you can do anything you want. I've done it with integrity and be pleased with I've done it with a brains of who I am. When I was 6 years ancient and I realized I was different, I embraced it. And I'm actual proud of myself."

Kaye is a television writer-producer working in looks Angeles.

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