LAWTON, Okla_You may
remember Vivian Wheeler from our "Fans and Friends" story Tuesday. If you saw
it, you noticed that she has a beard. Vivian is 64 years old, and just this
year, was inducted into the Guinness Book of World Records because of her
11-inch beard. Before that, she spent 55 years in the circus and sideshows.
She said behind
the red curtain and flashing lights was a life of struggle.
Wheeler has a
medical condition called hermaphroditism. Meaning, she is 50 percent male and 50
percent female. She said she was born with facial hair but when she was about
five that facial hair began to grow darker. When that happened, her father
couldn't even look at her and sold her into a life on the road with the Ringling
Brother's Circus. It's a life she said may seem bizarre to others but one that
has a special purpose.
Most of us can
not imagine life as a circus act with people paying money to gawk at what
society considers odd. It was Vivian's reality for 55 years. It began when her
father sold her in St. Louis,
Missouri to The Ringling Brothers
in 1953.
"It was
just something that I had to do to help my family financially. My father made
my mother sent me away."
She said life
on the road with the circus was tough with grueling work hours and tough living
conditions.
"They said
they have a place for us to sleep, which will be a truck that has tools and
tent stuff in it. They'd take it all out and that's where we put our backpack
down and slept there. We'd sleep under the tent when it was closed."
Wheeler said
she never knew how much money she was making because all of it went to her
family. She said her faith and her circus-family gave her strength.
"Not very
many people are in that type of business and understand how emotionally,
physically and mentally taxing it is. Being shunned by society because of who I
am but God doesn't make mistakes. I am not a mistake."
When Vivian
retired, she decided to become a Guinness Book of World Record holder. After
being seen by 35 doctors and authenticating her story she was inducted in the
2012 edition. She's a little uncomfortable with that accomplishment, saying it
doesn't truly define her as a person.
"I am in
the Guinness Book of World Records and people tell me I am famous, that it's a
history book but it doesn't comprehend in my head. I hope it never does because
I don't want to be that kind of person that they think I could be or should be."
Wheeler isn't
resting on her laurels. She said she is talking with Ripley's Believe It or Not
in Orlando
about putting together an exhibit about her unbelievable life.
She did get
married and had a son, who she said was kidnapped by her husband 30 years ago.
She said her son found her after seeing her picture in a book about the circus.
She said she still remembers how she felt when she saw him for the first time
last year.
"I would
hold my son and he makes me very happy. To touch him and to know that my
husband, he didn't get what he really wanted. He took my boy because he wanted
to hurt me."
She said her son, who lives in Kansas,
plans on participating in a documentary about their lives in the near future.
