I am saddened once again by another celebrity death - the third one this week. TWIT is sad to report that Sandy Allen, the world's tallest woman, has died. Allen passed away yesterday at the age of 53. She died at a nursing home in her hometown of Shelbyville, Indiana. The cause of death was not yet known. Allen had been hospitalized recently as she suffered from a recurring blood infection, along with diabetes, breathing troubles and kidney failure.
The Guinness World Records confirms that Allen was still listed as the world's tallest woman. Coincidentally, Allen lived in the same nursing home, Heritage House Convalescent Center, as 115 year old Edna Parker, whom Guiness has recognized as the world's oldest person.
Allen said a tumor caused her pituitary gland to produce too much growth hormone. At birth, she seemed like a normal baby, weighing 6 and a half pounds. By age 10 she was 6' 3" tall, and at age 16 she was 7' 1" tall. At age 22 she reached 7' 7", and underwent an operation to stop further growth. But she was proud of her height, and used it as a tool to educate people. She appeared on television shows and spoke to church and school groups to bring children the message that it was all right to be different. A friend of Allen's said that she loved talking to kids because they would ask more honest questions, where adults would stand back and stare and not know how to approach her.
I saw an interview with Sandy Allen on "Prime Time Live" last year, and thought how content and happy she was with her life. Sure, she got around in a wheel chair because of her health problems, but she still was happy and content. She truly is an inspiration to us all -- a challenge for us to be happy and content with things we can't change in our lives.
2 comments:
She is a true inspiration. She took what most would see as a negative and made it a positive, good on her! RIP Sandy!
Very nice entry, thank you. I knew Sandy for 31 years and she was a very special lady.
FYI: A scholarship fuind has been set up in her name. Memorial contributions can be made to the Sandy Allen Scholarship Fund at the Blue River Community Foundation, 54 W. Broadway, Shelbyville, IN 46176. Make checks payable to the foundation with "Sandy Allen Scholarship Fund" in the memo line. The scholarship will benefit Shelbyville Senior High School.
My book, "World's Tallest Woman: The Giantess of Shelbyville High," will be published by Hawthorne Publishing in November. It's a fiction-based-on-fact account of Sandy's struggles in high school aimed at middle school and young adult readers. My publisher calls it "creative non-fiction."
Rita Rose
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