Famous People & Spina Bifida
In no particular order....
Hank Williams, Sr.
Williams was one of the most influential country musicians of all time, both as a singer and as a composer. He suffered severe back pain throughout his short life. Sources cite him as having spina bifida or spina bifida occulta. An operation in 1951 aimed at relieving his constant pain was not successful. Addicted to alcohol and morphine, Williams died at the age of 29.
CNN Co-anchor Judy Woodruff
Woodruff has a son with spina bifida. She has been instrumental in the annual SBAA Celebrity Roast which raises funds for the Spina Bifida Association of America.
John Cougar Mellencamp
In the interview from the Special Olympics, he also said that two other people were born at the same time he was with spina bifida. He said he always saw a particular girl at the basketball games who was confined to a wheelchair. He asked someone who it was and they told him that she was one of the others born with spina bifida.
John realized it could have been him in that wheelchair and that is one of the main reasons he did a song for the Special Olympics. Most of those with spina bifida end up like the girl in the wheelchair and are not as lucky as John.
Buddy Winnett
Buddy Winnett is a former horse jockey and trainer who is legally blind due to macular degeneration. Born in West Virginia to a large family, Winnett was diagnosed with spina bifida, and wasn't expected to live past the age of 6.
Artist Frida Kahlo
It is believed that Mexican artist Frida Kahlo may have had spina bifida, along with other disabilities, including residual damage from polio and injuries suffered in a bus accident.
See Neurological Deficits in the Life and Works of Frida Kahlo by Valmantas Budrys of the
Clinics of Neurology and Neurosurgery, Faculty of Medicine, Vilnius University, Vilnius, Lithuania for more details.
Bruce Payne
British actor has a mild form of spina bifida. Learn more about his career on his page at IMDB.
Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley
Mayor Daley had a son named Kevin who had spina bifida. Kevin died in 1981.
Quarterback Elvis Grbac
Elvis has a young son who has spina bifida. He was the quarterback of the National Football League's San Francisco 49ers.
Olympian Jean Driscoll
Jean was born with spina bifida. She is a seven-time winner of the Boston Marathon, setting world records in five of those races. She set a world record in the 10-kilometer race last year, and won silver medals in 800-meter events at the 1992 and 1996 Olympics, as well as two gold medals, one silver and one bronze at the 1996 Paralympics.
In 2000, Jean was voted #25 of the Top 100 Female Athletes of the 20th century by Sports Illustrated for Women, a list topped by the Olympic track and field sensation, Jackie Joyner-Kersee. Visit Jean's web site:
http://www.jeandriscoll.com/
Poet Jay Bradford Fowler
Jay Bradford Fowler Jr., was an award-winning poet who was the author of 17 books of verse. He was born with spina bifida, and had been treated for degenerative arthritis throughout the 1990s. He had undergone at least 16 major operations over the years and had been bedridden the past eight years.
The first of his 17 books of poetry, "Writing Down the Light," was published in 1987. A book of his collected poems, "Caged Angel," was published in 1997. His last book, "Outrageous Asylum, Sonnets from the Nursing Home," appeared in 1998. A final volume of his work is to be published this year.
Author Paul Monette
Monette was the older of two boys. His brother, Robert, was born with spina bifida. Monette became Robert's protector and champion. He also decided he would need to live an exemplary life to compensate for his brother's illness.
"Paul Monette: The Brink of Summer's End" is a poignant, illuminating documentary on Paul Monette, the National Book Award-winning author, who wrote with eloquence and fire about the devastation of homophobia and AIDS, the disease that left him twice a widower and ended his own life in 1995 at age 49.
Sound Designer Jim LeBrecht
Jim was born with spina bifida. He is also the co-author (with composer Deena Kaye) of Sound and Music for the Theatre: the Art and Technique of Design, and has been a visiting professor at Yale University. LeBrecht has won numerous awards, including the San Francisco Bay Area Drama Critics' Circle Award for Outstanding Sound Design, which might as well be renamed in his honor, since he's won it five times.
Actor Rene Kirby
Best known for his role in Shallow Hal, Rene (pronounced 'Reen') Kirby was born in Vermont in 1955. He also appeared in the film "Stuck On You" with Matt Damon, Greg Kinnear and Eva Mendes, and the HBO series Carnivàle. Learn more about his career on his IMBD web page.
Theatrical Make-Up Artist Van Smith
Born in Florida in 1945, Walter Avant Smith Jr., showed an early interest in art, but lacked dexterity due to stiffness in his hands as a result of spina bifida. But he parlayed that interest into a career with film-maker John Waters after earning a degree in fashion arts from the Maryland Institute College of Art. Waters referred to Smith as the resident "ugly expert". He designed the pink satin ball gown adorned with huge cockroaches worn by Ricki Lake in Mr. Waters’s 1988 film, “Hairspray” and Divine's trademark look.
He also worked as an illustrator at Women's Wear Daily and other publications in New York.
He died of a heart attack in December of 2006.
- Waters Ally Van Smith; Films' Doyen of Dirt - Washington Post
- Van Smith, 61, Dies; Created Divine’s Distinctive Look - New York Times
- IMDB web page
Journalist Gilbert M. Gaul
Gil is a 1979 Pulitzer Prize winner for Investigative Reporting and has written for the Philadelphia Inquirer and Washington Post. He has a son, Cary, who has spina bifida. Gil profiled his son's early years in the book "Giant Steps" which is currently out-of-print but can sometimes be found at used book stores and online.
Poet Robert Hensel
Robert was born with spina bifida. He an International poet-writer with well over 900 publications published worldwide. In 2000, Robert was nominated as one of the best poets of the 20th Century. Robert is also a Guinness & Ripley's World Record Holder for the longest non stop wheelie in a wheelchair, covering a total distance of 6.178 miles. Visit his web page at: http://wheelierecord.tripod.com/id12.html
Special Thanks to Jolyne W., Mary S., Susan and Julia Grace Collins for their contributions to this page!
It has taken us a great deal of time to compile the information on this page. Please credit the Children and Adults with Spina Bifida web site if you use the information else.
Thanks,
Linda