Sandy Allen

Her height was due to a tumor in her pituitary gland that caused it to release growth hormone uncontrollably, between 200 and 1,000 times more than usual.{{Cite news|last=Bennetts|first=Leslie|date=August 7, 1978|title=At 7 Foot 7, They Make the Best of a Burden|language=en-US|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1978/08/07/archives/at-7-foot-7-they-make-the-best-of-a-burden-misfunctioning-of-a.html|access-date=2021-04-20|issn=0362-4331}}

She grew up in Shelbyville, Indiana, and was raised by her grandmother, who worked as a cleaning woman. At the age of 22, in 1977, she underwent surgery for the condition.{{Cite web|date=August 13, 2008|title=World's Tallest Woman Dies In Indiana|url=https://www.cbsnews.com/news/worlds-tallest-woman-dies-in-indiana/|access-date=2021-04-20|website=AP via CBS News|language=en-US}} Lacking this procedure, Allen would have continued to grow and suffer further medical problems associated with gigantism.

Although over the years other women have taken the title of the tallest woman, Allen held it for the last sixteen years of her life.{{Cite web |date=January 5, 2020 |title=World's tallest woman Sandy Allen memorabilia donated to Ripley museums |url=https://www.wishtv.com/news/worlds-tallest-woman-sandy-allen-memorabilia-donated-to-ripley-museums/ |access-date=2021-04-20 |website=WISH-TV {{!}} Indianapolis News {{!}} Indiana Weather {{!}} Indiana Traffic |language=en-US}}

She appeared in the film Fellini's Casanova and the 1981 TV movie Side Show as Goliatha.{{Cite AV media |url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0083075/fullcredits/ |title=Side Show (TV Movie 1981) - Full cast & crew - IMDb |language=en-US |access-date=2025-05-24 |via=www.imdb.com}} As herself, she appeared in the 1999 American documentary Sideshow: Alive on the Inside,{{Cite AV media |url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1934391/fullcredits/ |title=Sideshow: Alive on the Inside (TV Movie 1999) - Full cast & crew - IMDb |language=en-US |access-date=2025-05-24 |via=www.imdb.com}} and in the Canadian/American documentary film, Being Different."Tallest woman to attend showing". The Globe and Mail, October 27, 1981. The New Zealand band Split Enz wrote a song about her, "Hello Sandy Allen", released in 1982.

Allen never married, saying that she was "an oldfashioned [sic] girl" and would not date a man shorter than her.{{Cite web|last=Jarosz|first=Francesca|date=April 15, 2011|title=World's tallest woman, Sandy Allen, dies|url=http://www.indystar.com/article/20080814/LOCAL/808140468/0/NEWS/Sandy-Allen-world-s-tallest-woman-overcame-obstacles|url-status=live|access-date=2021-04-20|website=The Indianapolis Star|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110415005138/http://www.indystar.com/article/20080814/LOCAL/808140468/0/NEWS/Sandy-Allen-world-s-tallest-woman-overcame-obstacles|archive-date=2011-04-15}}

In 2001, she dictated her life story to John Kleiman, which he wrote and published as Cast a Giant Shadow: The Inspirational Life Story of Sandy Allen “The World’s Tallest Living Woman”.{{Cite web |title=ISBN 9780759681057 - Cast a Giant Shadow: The Inspirational Life Story of Sandy Allen "The World's Tallest Living Woman" |url=https://isbnsearch.org/isbn/9780759681057 |access-date=2025-05-24 |website=isbnsearch.org}}

In her later years, Allen used a wheelchair because her legs and back could no longer support her tall stature while standing. At one point, she was bedridden due to disease, causing atrophy of the muscles. Due to this limitation, she spent her last years in Shelbyville, Indiana, in the same retirement center as Edna Parker, the oldest living human at the time.{{Cite web|date=August 14, 2008|title=Tallest woman in the world taught children to accept differences|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2008-aug-14-me-allen14-story.html|access-date=2021-04-20|website=Los Angeles Times|language=en-US}}

Allen died on August 13, 2008. Her family friend, Rita Rose, revealed that she suffered from a recurring blood infection, along with Type 2 diabetes, breathing troubles, and kidney failure.{{Cite web|date=August 13, 2008|title=World's Tallest Woman Dies at 53|url=https://www.cbc.ca/amp/1.704564|access-date=2021-04-20|website=CBC News Canada}}

A scholarship was dedicated in Allen's name at Shelbyville High School. In 2020, Allen's friend and manager, John Kleiman, donated a collection of her memorabilia to Ripley's Museums.

{{Reflist}}

• [http://hawthornepub.com/books/cultural-history/the-worlds-tallest-woman/ The World's Tallest Woman: The Giantess of Shelbyville High] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201001135144/http://www.hawthornepub.com/books/cultural-history/the-worlds-tallest-woman/ |date=October 1, 2020 }}, hawthornepub.com
• [https://www.buzzfeed.com/sandraeallen/the-sad-strange-true-story-of-sandy-allen-the-tallest-woman Biography], buzzfeed.com
• {{IMDb name|id=0021031|name=Sandy Allen}}
• [http://www.educationworld.com/a_curr/curr004.shtml Profile], educationworld.com
• [https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna26178315 Life story], msnbc.msn.com
• [https://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/22/opinion/22cohen.html?ref=opinion New York Times profile], nytimes.com
• [http://obits.courierpress.com/CourierPress/Obituaries.asp?Page=LifeStory&PersonID=115562405 Obituary] in the Evansville Courier & Press
• {{Find a Grave|29029519}}

{{s-start}}

{{succession box

| title = Tallest recognized woman

| years = 1976–2008

| before = Zeng Jinlian

| after = Yao Defen

}}

{{s-end}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Allen, Sandy}}

Category:1955 births

Category:2008 deaths

Category:20th-century American memoirists

Category:American television actresses

Category:People from Shelbyville, Indiana

Category:People with gigantism

Category:Deaths from sepsis in the United States

Category:Deaths from kidney failure in the United States

Category:American film actresses

Category:American women memoirists

Category:20th-century American actresses

Category:21st-century American women