Hello:  I was recently told about an entertainer (remembered as a
pianist) from the 1950s who married a woman and had two kids.  After
the entertainer died, it was discovered via autopsy that the person
publicly known as a "he" was really a "she".  A friend recounted that
she watched a television documentary on this person within the past
year or so.

I can't find information on this person and would like to know about
this entertainer.  Thanks.

Hello michellemck-ga,


The entertainer that you’re referring to is the jazz entertainer Billy
Tipton who died in 1989.

“On January 21, 1989 Billy Tipton, a minor jazz musician, died at 74.
Tipton's death would have been minor news item but for the amazing
fact that it revealed. Billy Tipton, it turned out, was really a
woman, a fact that Tipton kept from all who knew him, including
several of his wives and his three adopted sons.”
http://gaytoday.badpuppy.com/garchive/reviews/092898re.htm


“In 1989, paramedics trying to resuscitate 74-year-old jazz musician
Billy Tipton tore open his sleepwear, setting free the secret he had
kept most of his life. What they discovered was that Tipton was a
woman.”
http://216.239.51.100/search?q=cache:lUyyFFgxToMC:www.suntimes.com/output/books/tipt26.html+Billy+Tipton+story&hl=en&ie=UTF-8


Here is a brief excerpt from the essay The Man Who Played Well for a
Woman: Billy Tipton’s Life as a Passing Woman by Danielle Picard. This
essay won the Western's Caucus on Women's Issues 2002 Essay Award.

 “Dorothy Lucille Tipton was born on December 29, 1914, in Oklahoma
City, Oklahoma; Billy Lee Tipton died in Spokane, Washington, on
January 21, 1989.  Dorothy began passing as man when she was nineteen
years old in order to join a band that would not hire women.  From
then on, Billy Tipton built a career as a jazz musician that achieved
its greatest success in the mid-1950s.  He traveled with various bands
throughout the western United States and parts of western Canada and
even made two records at the peak of his career.”

Source: University of Ontario
http://www.uwo.ca/wcwi/tipton.htm


The story of Billy Tipton's life has been the research of author and
scholar Diane Wood Middlebrook since 1992. Her work resulted in Suits
Me: The Double Life of Billy Tipton a biography of the jazz musician
who grew up in Oklahoma City and Kansas City.
An interesting interview with her can be read here:
http://www.jerryjazzmusician.com/linernotes/wood.html#Why%20a%20biography%20on%20Billy%20Tipton?


The biography of Billy Tipton is available for online purchase at the
Amazon website.
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0395957893/jerryjazzmusicia/104-4471011-0153565


Search Criteria:

Pianist died autopsy woman
Billy Tipton


Thank you for your question and I hope this response has provided you
with the information you were seeking.


Best Regards,
Bobbie7-ga

---

Clarification of Answer by bobbie7-ga on 21 Jan 2003 17:44 PST

One of my fellow researchers kindly sent me a link to the documentary
your friend saw on TV which was almost certainly this Canadian short
film, The Gender Tango which tells the moving story of Billy Tipton.
http://www.wlu.ca/~wwwav/WLUCollection/G/v1023.htm

Top notch - thanks!

Thank you for the rating and the tip!