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READING, Pa. — Conjoined twins Lori and George Schappell, who pursued separate careers, interests and relationships during lives that defied medical expectations, died this month in Pennsylvania, according to funeral home officials. They were 62.
The twins, listed by Guinness World Records as the oldest living conjoined twins, died April 7 at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, according to obituaries posted by Leibensperger Funeral Homes of Hamburg. The cause of death was not detailed.
"When we were born, the doctors didn't think we'd make 30, but we proved them wrong," Lori said in an interview when they turned 50, The Philadelphia Inquirer reported. George came out as transgender in 2007.
The twins, born Sept. 18, 1961, in West Reading, Pennsylvania, had distinct brains but were joined at the skull. George, who had spina bifida and was 4 inches shorter, was wheeled around by Lori on an adaptive wheeled stool. Despite each having to go where the other went, it was "very important" to both "to live as independently as possible," the obituary said.
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Both graduated from a public high school and took college classes. George went along for six years as Lori worked in a hospital laundry. Lori — "a trophy-winning bowler," according to the obituary notice — gave up the job in 1996 so her sibling could launch a country music career.
"Since the age of 24, they have maintained their own residence and have traveled extensively," the obituary notice said. Over the years, they appeared in many documentaries and talk shows, as well as in an episode of the FX medical drama "Nip/Tuck."
The Philadelphia Inquirer reported that Lori was once engaged to be married but that her fiance died in an automobile accident.
"When I went on dates," Lori said, "George would bring along books to read."
The twins said in a 1997 documentary that they had different bathing schedules and showered one at a time. George spoke of giving someone you love and respect "the privacy and compromise in situations that you would want them to give you." Lori said compromise meant "you don't get everything you want right when you want it."
Conjoined twins occur once in every 50,000 to 60,000 births when identical twins from a single embryo fail to separate. About 70% are female, and most are stillborn. Only a small percentage are joined at the head, with nearly three-quarters joined at the chest and others at the abdomen or pelvis.
Separation was deemed risky for the Schappell twins, but Lori Schappell told The Associated Press in a 2002 interview at the twins' apartment in a high-rise seniors complex that she didn't think such an operation was necessary in any case.
"You don't mess with what God made, even if it means you enjoy both children for a shorter time," she said. In the 1997 documentary, George also strongly ruled out the idea of separation, saying, "Why fix what is not broken?"
It isn't immediately clear who will now take the title of oldest living conjoined twins. The oldest ever documented were Ronnie and Donnie Galyon, who died in 2020 at age 68. Eng and Chang Bunker, the 19th century "Siamese Twins" who gained fame as a circus act, lived to be 63.
The Schappell twins' survivors include their father and six siblings. Private services are planned, the funeral home said.
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Photos: Notable deaths in 2024
Glynis Johns
Adan Canto
Bud Harrelson
Dejan Milojevic
Jack Burke
Mary Weiss
Norman Jewison
Charles Osgood
Melanie Safka
Chita Rivera
Carl Weathers
Wayne Kramer
Ian Lavender
Toby Keith
Henry Fambrough
Bob Edwards
Don Gullett
Lefty Driesell
Andreas Brehme
Golden Richards
Richard Lewis
Nikolai Ryzhkov
Brian Mulroney
Akira Toriyama
Iris Apfel
Andy Russell
Ed Ott
Chris Mortensen
Steve Lawrence
Naomi Barber King
Paul Alexander
Thomas P. Stafford
Chris Simon
M. Emmet Walsh
Laurent de Brunhoff
Obit Angelos Baseball
Joe Lieberman
Louis Gossett Jr.
Joe Flaherty
Larry Lucchino
Christopher Durang
Jerry Grote
Schappell Twins
Peter Higgs
Ralph Puckett Jr.
O.J. Simpson
Eleanor Coppola
Robert MacNeil
Faith Ringgold
Steve Sloan
Ken Holtzman
Carl Erskine
Whitey Herzog
Bob Graham
Dickey Betts
Mandisa
David Pryor
Roman Gabriel
Andrew Davis
Terry Anderson
Bill Gladden
Duane Eddy
Paul Auster
Dick Rutan
Steve Albini
Jimmy Johnson
Sean Burroughs
Roger Corman
A.J. Smith
David Sanborn
Alice Munro
Dabney Coleman
Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi
Jim Otto
Ivan Boesky
Jan. A.P. Kaczmarek
Carlie Colin
Morgan Spurlock
Richard M. Sherman
Bill Walton
Albert Ruddy
Larry Allen
Janis Paige
Parnelli Jones
Chet Walker
The Rev. James Lawson Jr.
Jerry West
Ron Simons
Bob Schul
Willie Mays
Donald Sutherland
Bill Cobbs
Kinky Friedman
Martin Mull
Robert Towne
Vic Seixas
James Inhofe
Joe Bonsall
Shelley Duvall
Dr. Ruth Westheimer
Richard Simmons
Jacoby Jones
Shannen Doherty
James Sikking
Pat Williams
Lou Dobbs
Bob Newhart
Cheng Pei-Pei
Abdul 'Duke' Fakir
Bernice Johnson Reagon
John Mayall
Erica Ash
Jack Russell
Chi Chi Rodriguez
Susan Wojcicki
Frank Selvy
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Gena Rowlands
Peter Marshall
Alain Delon
Phil Donahue
Al Attles
James Darren
James Earl Jones
Frankie Beverly
Joe Schmidt
Tito Jackson
Dan Evans
Mercury Morris
Maggie Smith
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