Buck's Weird News Blog
When Your Long-Lost Mother Is the Bearded Lady
Monday September 20, 2010

For years, Richard Lorenc imagined that his long-lost mother was Grace Slick from Jefferson Airplane.

Well, it turns out mom didn't emerge from the Haight-Ashbury freak scene... she was actually a different kind of freak altogether.

My friend Marc Harzman has the unusual story of a man who tracked down his birth mother, only to find out that she was a bearded lady.

Vivian Wheeler is a hermaphrodite, born with both male and female body parts -- but doctors removed the male bits at birth, allowing her to live life as a woman.

But she also happens to have a very masculine facial structure, and -- since childhood -- has been able to grow a beard, leading to a life on the circus-freak circuit.

Her 11-inch-long beard has earned her a position in the Guinness World Records book, as well as in Ripley's Believe It or Not! publications.

While some people might not take this news well, Lorenc is simply thrilled to have found his mother -- and even notes the strong resemblance.

You can see for yourself in my special gallery,Ripley's World of the Bizarre.
Photo © Richard Lorenc  (aboutcom.weird news0