READ, Dad. — 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 University of Pennsylvania Hospital, 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 would live to be 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 on September 18, 1961 in West Reading, Pennsylvania, had different brains but were connected at the skull. George, who had spina bifida and was 4 inches shorter, was wheeled around by Lori on an adjustable stool on wheels. Even though each had to go where the other went, it was “very important” that they could both “live as independently as possible,” the obituary said.
Both graduated from a public high school and attended college classes. George lasted six years while Lori worked in a hospital laundry. Lori – “a trophy-winning bowler,” according to the obituary – gave up the job in 1996 so her sibling could pursue a career in country music.
“Since the age of 24, they have maintained their own home and traveled extensively,” the obituary said. Over the years, they appeared in many documentaries and talk shows, as well as an episode of the FX medical drama “Nip/Tuck.”
The Philadelphia Inquirer reported that Lori was once engaged to be married, but her fiancé died in a car accident.
“When I went on dates,” Lori said, “George would bring books to read.”
The twins said in a 1997 documentary that they had different bathing schedules and showered one at a time. George talked about giving someone you love and respect “the privacy and compromise in situations that you would want him or her to give you.” Lori said that compromise meant not getting everything you want, when you want it.
Conjoined twins occur once in every 50,000 to 60,000 births, when identical twins from one embryo fail to separate. About 70% are women and most are stillborn. Only a small percentage are connected to the head, while almost three-quarters are connected to the chest and others to the abdomen or pelvis.
A divorce was considered risky for the Schappell twins, but Lori Schappell told The Associated Press in a 2002 interview at the twins’ apartment in a high-rise complex for seniors that she didn’t think such an operation was necessary anyway.
“You don’t mess with what God made, even if it means you don’t get to enjoy both of your children for as long,” she said. In the 1997 documentary, George also firmly ruled out the idea of divorce, saying, “Why fix what isn’t broken?”
It is not 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 the age of 68. Eng and Chang Bunker, the 19th-century “Siamese twins” who rose to fame as a circus act, lived to be 63 years old.
The Schappell twins’ survivors include their father and six siblings. Private services are planned, the funeral home said.