Conference turris::womannotes-v2

433.0. "woman in a man's world" by HYDRA::LARU (Surfin' the Zuvuya) Tue Feb 07 1989 13:06

FYI; copied from another notefile.
    
    
    SPOKANE, Wash. (AP) -- Billy Tipton lived his life as a man, performing
    as a jazz musician, appearing to have a wife and adopting three sons.
    But death at age 74 disclosed to fans, friends and family that Billy
    Tipton was a woman. 

    Donald Ball, director of Ball and Dodd Funeral Home, said this week
    that Tipton, who died last month of a bleeding ulcer, was a woman. 

    Ball said he privately informed Jon Clark, one of Tipton's adopted
    sons, that his "father" was really female so Clark would not have to
    learn it from the death certificate. 

    "I'm just lost," Clark told Spokesman-Review newspaper.  He said he
    learned the truth last Wednesday, four days after Tipton's death. 

    "No one knew," said Kitty Oakes, the woman that Tipton had said he
    married in 1960.  Oakes, who separated from Tipton 10 years ago,
    declined to talk about her life with Tipton, saying he died with the
    secret and that should be respected. 

    "The real story about Billy Tipton doesn't have anything to do with
    gender," she said.  "He was a fantastic, almost marvellous, and
    generous person." 

    "He'll always be dad," Clark said.  "But I think that he should have
    left something behind for us, something that would have explained the
    truth." 

    The newspaper said Tipton apparently began appearing as a man to
    enhance his chances of success as a jazz musician. 

    "He gave up everything," Oakes said.  "There were certain rules and
    regulations in those days if you were going to be a musician." 

    Tipton, a saxophone and piano player, performed with the Jack
    Teagarden, Russ Carlyle and Scott Cameron bands, then formed the Billy
    Tipton Trio in the 1950s and played nightclubs throughout the U.S.
    West. 

    Dick O'Neil, who played drums with the trio for 10 years, recalled some
    listeners made cracks that Tipton, with a baby face and a high singing
    voice, looked too feminine to be a man. 

    "But I would almost fight anybody who said that," O'Neil said.  "I
    never suspected a thing." 

    Scott Miller, 27, Tipton's oldest adopted son, said his father died
    broke and tired. 

    "Now I know why I couldn't get him to a doctor," Miller said.  "He had
    so much to protect and I think he was just tired ... of keeping the
    secret." 

    
    

    
    I was gonna copy this from the jazz notesfile
    into this one, but you beat me to it!!
           
    As a female jazz musician, I found this article really telling.
    I hope things have gotten better for women in jazz (and all the
    arts).
    
    Roberta

    I know it's difficult being a woman in the arts but I think this
    is a case of gender identity confusion.
    
    Kate
    

    
    This topic was covered in detail last night on "A Current Affair"
    shown on the FOX network.  I only caught about 10 minutes of this
    so I'm probably missing some info.
    
    According to his wife, when they first met, he told her they could
    not "make love" because he was in a car accident and the engine
    of his car was pushed backward into his genitalalla area and he
    could not function as a "man".  She did  not question this, as
    she was suffering from some sort of problem that left her without
    the feeling/need/want of having sex.  Now, that's all well and 
    good, but after being married for 20? years, you would of thought
    she saw him naked.
    
    Plus, what about the other men in his band(s)....Billie NEVER
    was in the mens room with any of them standing at the urinal?
    Or did he go into the stalls stating he was modest/shy?
    
    dr
    
    
    
    

    re .4:
    
    > Plus, what about the other men in his band(s)....Billie NEVER
    > was in the mens room with any of them standing at the urinal?
    > Or did he go into the stalls stating he was modest/shy?
      
    My bet is that he gave them the same story as he gave his wife;
    a car accident that mutilated him, and thus could NOT stand at the
    urinal. 
    
    If you have to lie, keep it simple and consistent (i.e. tell everybody
    the same lie)
    
                                                   
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    re:.4
    
    Besides, men don't *have* to stand at the urinals. They do use
    toilets, too. I'm not sure that anyone would ever notice that
    Billy never had to "just" urinate.
    
    --- jerry