Goodbye Sandy Allen

A slightly obscure pop culture icon has passed away: World's Tallest Woman Dies at 53

INDIANAPOLIS - A woman who grew to be 7 feet, 7 inches tall and was recognized as the world's tallest female died Wednesday, 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, family friend Rita Rose said.

The cause of death was not yet known. Allen had been hospitalized in recent months as she suffered from a recurring blood infection, along with diabetes, breathing troubles and kidney failure, Rose said.

In London, Guinness World Records spokesman Damian Field confirmed Wednesday that Allen was still listed as the tallest woman. Some Web sites cite a 7-foot-9 woman from China. …

Allen weighed 6-1/2 pounds when she was born in June 1955. By the age of 10 she had grown to be 6-foot-3, and by age 16 she was 7-1.

She wrote to Guinness World Records in 1974, saying she would like to get to know someone 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.

The recognition as the world's tallest woman helped Allen accept her height and become less shy, Rose said.

"It kind of brought her out of her shell," Rose said. "She got to the point where she could joke about it."

In the 1980s, she appeared for several years at the Guinness Museum of World Records in Niagara Falls, Ontario.

"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 recalled with a chuckle when she moved back to Indiana in 1987. 

"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."

My chief point of connection to Miss Allen is the song "Hello Sandy Allen" from the classic Split Enz album Time & Tide.  The lyrics, by Neil Finn, always struck me as particularly touching:

Hello Sandy Allen,The world's tallest woman

We made friends in New York, Don't know if you'll remember

I'm bound to say I felt uneasy, when I first laid eyes on you

But I liked the way you talked, Like a living hoper

Towering over our heads in more ways than one

The hand that shook my hand was awesome, It still amazes me

Hope you're happy - Sandy Allen, Hope your garden is blooming

We're all staring at the mirror, Tryin' to put our faces on

Appearance never held you back

Must be when you're number one, you don't have to try so hard

Godspeed.