The world’s oldest conjoined twin, Laurie, and his transgender twin, George Chappelle, died at the age of 62 in a hospital in Pennsylvania.
Guinness World Records said the twins were born in Pennsylvania on September 18, 1961, and their skulls were 30% partially fused and they shared vital blood vessels.
Lori and George became the world’s first conjoined twins to identify as different sexes in 2007, when George transitioned into a man.
They were also nine years older than the second-oldest conjoined twins ever, according to Guinness. Despite spending every moment of life together, the two had completely different interests and professions.
Their obituary said: “It was very important to Laurie and George that they live as independently as possible. From the age of 24, they maintained their own residence and traveled extensively.”
Lori was able to walk while George, who is four inches shorter and had been diagnosed with spina bifida, moved around in a wheelchair pushed by Lori, according to a 2002 Los Angeles Times report.
They each had separate rooms in their apartment in Pennsylvania, and they had different hobbies.
George performed all over the world as a country music singer, and Lori was an award-winning bowler. Throughout the 1990s, Lori also worked in a hospital laundry when George wasn’t on tour.
The twins have appeared in numerous documentaries, and also made guest appearances in the hit medical drama “Nip/Tuck,” where they played a fictional pair of conjoined twins.
Surgery to separate the two was not available when they were born, and they were not expected to live beyond the age of 30.
After their birth, they spent the first 24 years of their lives in a mental institution, after their “scared and confused” parents placed them there, they told New York magazine in 2005.
But they never expressed any desire to separate from each other. And throughout their lives, despite their connection, they were never able to look at each other.
“I don’t believe in separation. I think you’re messing with God’s work,” Lori told the Times. “Are we going to break up? Of course not,” George said in a 1997 documentary. “My theory is: Why fix what’s not broken?”
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