INDIANAPOLIS–A woman who grew to be 7 feet, 7 inches tall and was recognized as the world's tallest woman died early yesterday, a friend said. She was 53.
Sandy Allen, who used her height to inspire schoolchildren to accept those who are different, died at a nursing home in her hometown of Shelbyville, Ind., family friend Rita Rose said. The cause of death was not yet known. Allen had been hospitalized in recent months with a recurring blood infection, along with diabetes, breathing troubles and kidney failure, Rose said.
In London, Guinness World Records spokesperson Damian Field confirmed yesterday Allen was still listed as the tallest woman. Some websites cite a 7-foot-9 woman from China.
Coincidentally, Allen lived in the same nursing home, Heritage House Convalescent Center, as 115-year-old Edna Parker, whom Guinness has recognized as the world's oldest person since August 2007.
Allen said a tumour caused her pituitary gland to produce too much growth hormone. She underwent surgery in 1977 to halt her growth.
But she "embraced" her height, Rose said. "She used it as a tool to educate people.''
Allen appeared on television shows and spoke to church and school groups to bring youngsters her message that it was all right to be different.
After Allen was listed by Guinness as the world's tallest woman, she won a role in Federico Fellini's 1976 film Casanova, appearing as Angelina the Giantess. She was featured in the 1981 Canadian documentary Being Different
She weighed 6 1/2 pounds at birth in 1955. By age 10 she was 6-3, and, six years later, stood 7-1. She wrote to Guinness World Records in 1974 hoping to meet somebody her own height. "It is needless to say my social life is practically nil and perhaps the publicity from your book may brighten my life," she wrote.
In the 1980s, she appeared for several years at the Guinness Museum of World Records in Niagara Falls, Ont. "I'll never forget the old Japanese man who couldn't speak English, so he decided to feel for himself if I was real," she said in 1987.
