Profile: Billy Tipton (1914-1989)
Jazz pianist Billy Tipton was born in Okalahoma as Dorothy Tipton. But from the age of 19, Tipton lived as a man, marrying five women and adopting and raising three boys.
Over a 50-year performing career, Billy Tipton fooled nearly everyone, including Duke Ellington.
Tipton died in 1989 and was outed as biologically female by the coroner.
Tipton was careful to leave behind as few legal documents as possible. He finished high school but didn’t request graduation certification, as if he were already planning to leave his female birth identity behind. Early in his career, even when most of his friends still knew that he had a female body, he obtained legal documents listing him as male.
Tipton’s gender identity and intentions have been subject to debate over the years. Some have suggested it was only a stunt to advance as a jazz musician. As Tipton himself said, "Some people might think I'm a freak or a hermaphrodite. I'm not. I'm a normal person. This has been my choice."
More on Billy Tipton:
• Suits Me: The Double Life of Billy Tipton. Diane Wood Middlebrook, Mariner Books, 1999.
• Interview with Diane Wood Middlebrook, author of Suits Me
• Excerpts from Suits Me