The Niagara Falls Reporter has a nice article about Sandy Allen, the world’s tallest woman, who used to work in Niagara Falls. Pretty much the entire article is about her work at Guinness:
Sandy stood out from the other offerings along the street like a cheetah against a white backdrop. It wasn’t just her height that grabbed your attention, it was the fact that she was real. Every other museum storefront was occupied by wax figures, each one creepier than the last. Encountering a real person amid this plasticized landscape was akin to meeting an earthling on Mars — it was a shock to the senses.
A cynic might say Sandy Allen was fortunate in that she was paid to essentially be herself each day in front of that museum. A romantic knows her life there was as tragic as the human condition gets without physical abuse.
A quote contained in her obituary brought me back nearly 30 years.
“At Guinness there were days when I felt like I was doing a freak show,” Allen said. “When that feeling came too often, I knew I had to come back home.”
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Thanks for such a nice post! Sandy was indeed a special lady and my friend for 30 years. I have a new book coming out about her at the end of October, “World’s Tallest Woman: The Giantess of Shelbyville High,” from Hawthorne Publishing. We have established a scholarship fund in her name to benefit students at the high school. Send contributions to:
Blue River Community Foundation
54 W. Broadway, Suite 1
Shelbyville, IN 46176
Put “Sandy Allen Fund” in the memo line. Or go to http://www.blueriverfoundation.com and follow the links to “memorial gift in memory of….” and enter Sandy’s name. All contributions are tax deductible. Thanks.
Rita Rose