Saying Goodbye to Sandy Allen, the World's Tallest Woman

If you'd ever tuned into any of several documentaries on one of the Discovery networks and saw Sandy Allen, you'd remember her. Not just because she stood taller than everyone else (all the women, at least), at 7' 7 1/4 ", but because she seemed like such a nice woman. Always with a smile on her face, and a genuine one, watching Sandy Allen interact with a fascinated public was enlightening. Intelligent, patient and with a winningly self-deprecating sense of humor, Sandy was a wonder.



She died today in Indiana, where she was living in a rest home as her health deteriorated, suffering from a variety of ailments directly or indirectly related to the medical condition which caused her extreme height. Sandy was only fifty-three years old, and I hadn't realized she was exactly one year and one day younger than me. As a fellow Gemini, no doubt Sandy had a side to her that the public didn't see, probably one that contemplated the quirk of birth that thrust her into the spotlight as the world's tallest woman. I especially admire this quote about her time working as an attraction at the Guinness Museum in Ontario, Canada: "At Guinness there were days when I felt like I was doing a freak show," she said. "When that feeling came too often, I knew I had to come back home." (Born in Chicago, home for Sandy was Indianapolis, and at the time of her death she was living in nearby Shelbyville, interestingly at the same facility where the current world's oldest woman still lives.)


I've always been in awe and impressed by Sandy Allen, a woman who took the unusual lot that life handed her and made the very best of it. Many of us came to know her through her television appearances, and The Flaming Nose extends our deepest sympathy to all her family and friends. She made so many of them during her remarkable life, whether she knew us or not.



Sandy Elaine Allen, 1955 - 2008.