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During
his lifetime, you probably never heard of the immensely talented
jazz musician, Billy Tipton. Unfortunately Billy would become
famous world wide only after his death…. immediately after
his death. Billy’s greatest achievement was the secret that
he held on tightly to for 56 years and was not discovered
until his death in 1989. You see, he was a she.
Not
many gays have been outed by the coroner, but that is exactly
how the world discovered Billy’s true gender. Not identity,
but gender.
Childhood
Born
in Oklahoma City in 1914, Billy’s birth name was Dorothy,
named after a famous heroin in the book, “The Wizard of Oz”.
Her father was a very well known aviator in Oklahoma City
. She was raised in a family where people played the piano.
After her parents divorce, she went to live in Kansas City
with an eccentric Aunt. Her Aunt loved music and made sure
that Dorothy had formal musical training. Because Kansas City
had no prohibition, Kansas City at that time was the absolute
center of jazz and Dorothy formed a passion for the saxophone
and piano and could play like nobody’s business.
Becoming
Billy
Make
no mistake, Billy was a lesbian. But becoming a tranny was
not the primary reason for her transformation into Billy.
She simply wanted a job. What was considered abnormal in her
day, she was sexually attracted to women, but she also wanted
to do what she loved to do, play Jazz. Unfortunately, female
musicians were not taken seriously in her day. That was a
career reserved for men. You know, playing in bars was not
thought to be a place for a lady to be.
She
began her career in Depression Era, in 1933 at the age of
19. Quickly she realized that she would not receive the recognition
she deserved. That is when she changed her persona and became
Billy. William was her fathers name and Billy was her brothers
name, it was also androgynous and it fit well for a jazz musician,
so she naturally choose that alias. In the beginning she would
dress as Billy only for gigs, but she obviously enjoyed dressing
as a man, and eventually would live the rest of her life out
as Billy.
Maintaining
his identity
What
is surprising is how many people Billy fooled. He was considered
a ladies man and made quite an attractive man at that. Billy
never had problems getting a date that’s for sure. During
his career, Billy would have some guessing. In the bigger
metropolitan cities Billy had a harder time concealing his
gender. San Franciscans knew right away they were dealing
with a woman dressed as a man. Some would wonder and ponder
if he was actually a female, but most often Billy quickly
erased whatever doubt they had with his masculinity.
Billy
was also known to move around quite a bit, and later it was
thought that his nomad behavior was a ploy to conceal his
identity.
Shockingly,
Billy married five times and had three adopted children. While
most of the characters in Billy’s life had passed on, there
were a few women whom came forward with shock to learn that
the man they had been with or married was actually a woman.
When questioned over their sex life and what Billy used for
penetration, one ex wife claimed that she thought Billy had
a penis.
Billy
always wore a corset around his chest and his explanation
for that was that he had been injured in an automobile accident
and had to wear it at all times.
Sex
It
is said that only one of Billy’s ex lovers actually knew Billy
was a woman, that woman was Non Earl. Billy was 17 when she
started seeing Non Earl as Dorothy. She dated Non Earl throughout
her transformation into becoming Billy. Non Earl was the older
woman to Billy and was considered to be a party girl. She
definitely took the opportunity to show Billy the ropes, in
more ways than one. She was a dancer and knew the members
in the bands, so she was able to introduce Billy to many of
the players. She is also said to have introduced Billy to
her sexual expertise and liberated Billy sexually.
Clearly
Billy had an active sex life, and he practiced some kind of
penetration with the women that was very gratifying and that
they never doubted that it was a man.
As
an old man
Billy
at 74
Billy
really did have a hard time making a living, too. He did a
lot of jobs, was a very professional and disciplined man,
but he never had a lot of money. He lived on what he had.
He
was interested in settling down. He bought a nice house in
Spokane in a very nice part of town and started adopting children
with his wife, Kitty, who had been a stripper. She quit the
business to become a homemaker. His children were adopted
by Kitty from women who were in show business too and who
had illegitimate children. The first son was adopted at birth.
The second son adopted when he was a couple years old, and
the third son was adopted at birth.
Billy
and Kitty were married for 18 years.
Also,
upon Billy’s death Kitty learned that Billy was not the 10
years older than she was which Billy had told her but was
actually 20 years older. She later has said, “My god, when
we got married he must have been going through menopause!'”
He
had many loyal friends
One
of the most interesting facts about Billy’s life was that
he made no enemies. Even after his death when his deceit was
revealed, ex wives, his children and friends held him in the
highest regard. Now that says something.
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