Wichita County Commissioner Mark Beauchamp is responsible for burials in the county cemetery. That’s where people go who cannot afford their own final arrangements.
The old burial ground abounds with poignant life stories. But one has really resonated with Beauchamp.
It’s about Vivian Wheeler, the circus “bearded lady.”
Beauchamp said Wheeler, 77, lived her final days in a Wichita Falls nursing home and died on July 27. Her ashes will be interred at county expense.
Wheeler, who lived for many years in Lawton, Oklahoma, was interviewed for writer Marc Hartzman’s 2010 article, “Struggles and Triumphs: the Life of the Bearded Lady,” on WeirdHistorian.com. She had been born with a veil of blond hair on her face and had been born intersex.
She said her mother, who wanted a daughter, ordered a doctor to remove Wheeler’s male organs, and her father put her to work in sideshows when she was just 5. She was on the road at a young age to send money home to her parents.
Wheeler told the writer that over the years she worked with Ringling Bros and Barnum & Bailey circuses in sideshows and at state fairs, using the name Malinda Maxey.
She developed a deep faith in God that saw her through a life of tough times.
“I believe in Him unconditionally,” she told Hartzman.
He wrote that Wheeler shaved away her beard when she thought it appropriate, but she preferred wearing it and credited her earnings from it for paying for heart bypass surgeries for her mother.
Hartzman wrote that at one time, her beard was 17-inches long, and she once held a spot in Guinness World Records for having the longest beard of any woman.
Poor pay and poorer treatment drove her away from show business in 2004. She ended up in Lawton.
Beauchamp said he doesn’t know why she moved to Wichita Falls.
But he said social media posts indicate she was adored in Lawton.
“She was by all accounts a very kind, pleasant, loving person who just wanted to be seen for who she is, not the oddity,” Beauchamp said.
Wheeler was married four times, according to Hartzman. She had a son and daughter.
Beauchamp has been in touch with the son and with people she knew on the circus circuit. He’s talking with the Showman Association about helping acquire a headstone for her grave.
“I would really like her to have more than just a simple nameplate,” he said.
He would also like to have a funeral service eventually.
“She was not a spectacle. She was a person who endured hardship, traveled a difficult road and lived much of her life in a world that could be cruel and unforgiving,” Beauchamp said. “She continued forward with resilience, conviction and faith.”
This article originally appeared on Wichita Falls Times Record News: Former circus star and record holder dies in Wichita Falls | Exclusive
Reporting by Lynn Walker, Wichita Falls Times Record News / Wichita Falls Times Record News
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Lynn Walker, Wichita Falls Times Record News | USA TODAY Network
