LILLIE B. WILLIAMS

PERFORMER, TWIN, LEGEND

Article by Jada Hampton

On January 10th of 1932, Lillie B Williams was born the youngest into a poor, sharecropping family of at least eleven other siblings in Albany, Georgia.

There was something spectacularly different about Lillie as compared to her brothers and sisters, she was born with a parasitic twin.

Even though this proved to be a challenge, she would go on to become the “highest paid human oddity” of all time, securing her place as a sideshow legend.

An Oddity for the Century

Lillie was one of few people born with a parasitic twin. Parasitic twins are identical twins that never finished development and are most times lacking of brain or heart function.

They cannot survive independently and are completely dependent on the “dominant” twin. It is expected that one can live normally with this condition even if the twin cannot be removed after birth.

Lillie was expected to live an otherwise normal and healthy life.

Her twin grew out of the left side of her body and had one arm, two legs, three fingers, and a small arm-like structure.

Being born so unique, Lillie attracted the attention of many including a showman named Dick Best.

As he recalls, he heard about Lillie when he visited Georgia and went on a quest for the four-legged girl.

The Birth of Betty

Best billed her as Betty Lou Williams, for reasons unknown, even though it is speculated that it was to give the false impression that her twin was a male.

At nearly a year old, she was displayed in his museum in New York as a “four-legged wonder”.

It was at that same museum that Robert Ripley saw her and he would go on to form “Ripley’s Believe it or Not”-Lillie being one of his debut acts.

Best and Ripley worked out an “agreement” where she’d perform at Ripley’s for $250 a week.

After building a reputation for herself, she’d began to make as much as $1,000 a week performing for crowds.

Success and the Strike of Misfortune

Aweing those who encountered her, Lillie charmed like the best of them. She shot to fame for her kind and gentle nature and was also considered to be very beautiful and attractive which attracted the attention of male suitors.

Often, she would wear maternity clothes to cover her twin and custom made two pieces complimenting her curvy figure.

More than just beauty, she was also intelligent and giving, paying the way for all of her siblings to attend college and purchasing a 260-acre family ranch.

After some time she became engaged to a man that she fell deeply in love with. Unfortunately, the engagement didn’t last long because he ended up stealing from her and breaking her heart. Shortly after Lillie died of an asthma attack when she was 23 in Trenton, New Jersey.

Despite her short life, Lillie became a sideshow sweetheart in her almost 23-year career.

It is unfortunate that little is known about her personal life, but perhaps that was they way she wanted it.