Lori and George Schappell, the world’s oldest surviving conjoined twins, have died. The twins died on April 7 from undisclosed causes, according to shared obituaries released by Leibensperger Funeral Homes in Hamburg, Pennsylvania.
The Schappell twins were born in Pennsylvania on September 18, 1961. According to the Guinness World Records website, the duo held the record for the oldest living conjoined twins at the age of 62 years and 202 days.
Before George Schappell’s coming out announcement as transgender later in 2007, the twins held the record for the oldest female conjoined twins in history. According to the website, when George Schappell came out, they became the first set of same-sex conjoined twins to identify as different genders.
The Schappell twins were craniopagus twins, which means they had partially fused skulls. According to Guinness, the two individuals shared key blood vessels and 30% of their brains. They were the rarest type of conjoined twinning, accounting for only 2–6% of occurrences.
Lori Schappell could walk, but her brother, who was four inches shorter, was diagnosed with spina bifida and couldn’t walk
According to a 2005 profile of the Schappell siblings in New York, the twins were connected by their foreheads facing opposite directions and were unable to see each other.
When the Schappells were born, surgeries to separate them were not possible, and later they had no desire to be separated.
“I don’t believe in separation,” Lori Schappell told the Los Angeles Times in 2002. “I think you are messing with God’s work.”
Despite their physical closeness, the twins led quite different lives.
Lori Schappell could walk, but her brother, who was four inches shorter, was diagnosed with spina bifida and couldn’t walk on his own, the Los Angeles Times reported in 2002. So, Lori Schappell pushed her siblings around on a movable stool wherever they went.
The twins spent the first 24 years of their lives in an institution for mentally disabled people
George Schappell spent years as a professional country singer, even scheduling shows abroad. Lori Schappell has a college education and worked at a hospital. The pair told the Los Angeles Times that while Lori Schappell packed medical instruments, George would sit peacefully with a book.
As they grew up together, they devised novel ways to accommodate each other. Lori Schappell preferred to shower in the evenings, but her brother preferred to shower in the mornings. They devised a system that allowed one twin to bathe while the other remained dry.
“Normal is whatever you make of it, but we’re very happy,” Lori Schappell told the Los Angeles Times. “It all comes down to compromise. If more people in life did that, the world would be a better place.”
The twins spent the first 24 years of their lives in an institution for mentally disabled people after their “frightened and confused parents” sent them there, according to the New York magazine profile.
They were only able to leave the institution because former Pennsylvania governor Richard Thornburgh’s wife assisted state officials in proving that they did not have intellectual deficiencies, according to the magazine.
The twins then moved into a high-rise apartment meant for the elderly in Reading, Pennsylvania, where they lived independently.
The Schappell twins have appeared on numerous television programs and chat shows.
They also appeared in a 2004 episode of “Nip/Tuck,” as fake conjoined twins Rose and Raven Rosenberg, according to IMDB.com.