The Giant Of Illinois: Robert Pershing Wadlow Was The World’s Tallest Man

Ellen Lloyd – MessageToEagle.com –  Robert Pershing Wadlow, also known as the Giant of Illinois was the tallest man who ever lived.

Born on Feb. 22, 1918, in Alton, Illinois Robert was a normal-sized baby at eight pounds and six ounces but he quickly began to grow due to an overactive pituitary gland. When he was six months, he weighed 30 pounds. A year later, he weighed 62 pounds. At the age of 8, Robert had grown to 6′ and weighed 169 pounds.

In time, Robert’s size began to make life difficult for him. He required leg braces to walk and had little feeling in his legs and feet. However, despite these difficulties, he never used a wheelchair.

Life changed when Robert was nine. Due to Robert’s rare and unwieldy stature, Robert Wadlow was sensationalized during the 1920’s and 1930’s.

Newsreel photographers and newspaper reporters came and documented him for the masses. Before long, he was known around the world.

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People flocked to Alton to see the “giant boy” themselves. Some behaved respectfully, some did not. Circuses still recruited people with deformities to be in freak shows at this time. Offers came in for Robert to go on display because of his remarkable height. His family wanted nothing to do with this.
He continued participating in tours and public appearances, though only in his normal street clothes. His shoes were provided to him free of charge by a shoe company for which he did promotional work and appearances.

Robert was also a Freemason and was raised to the degree of Master Mason under the jurisdiction of the Grand Lodge of Illinois A.F & A.M. Wadlow’s Freemason ring was the largest ever made.

One year before his death, Wadlow passed John Rogan as the tallest person ever.

A documentary about Robert Wadlow.

On June 27, 1940 (eighteen days before his death), he was measured at 8 ft 11.1 in (2.72 m) by doctors C. M. Charles and Cyril MacBryde of Washington University in St. Louis.

On July 4, 1940 (11 days before his death), during a professional appearance at the Manistee National Forest Festival, a faulty brace irritated his ankle, causing a blister and subsequent parasitic infection. Doctors treated him with a blood transfusion and emergency surgery, but his condition worsened due to an autoimmune disorder, and on July 15, 1940, he died in his sleep at the age of 22

Robert was entombed in a coffin 10 feet long and weighing 1,000 pounds, requiring a dozen pallbearers and eight other assistants. Robert’s funeral was attended by 27,000 people. Robert’s parents buried their son’s body under a vault of concrete because of fears for the sanctity of his body.

Written by Ellen Lloyd – MesssageToEagle.com

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