Wacky Whiskers Wednesday: Bearded Lady Annie Jones!
For this Wacky Whiskers Wednesday, the Gals bring you another Gal after our own heart, bearded lady Annie Jones!
Annie Jones was born in Marion, Virginia on July 7, 1865, with a chin covered in hair. She joined performer P. T. Barnum as a circus attraction at the age of only nine months; her parents receiving a $150 a week salary for her participation as “The Infant Esau.” She was photographed by famous US photographer Matthew Brady as an infant in 1865. By age five, Jones had sideburns and a mustache and was billed as the “Bearded Girl.”
When Jones was sixteen she married Richard Elliot, a professional sideshow bally talker. They were married for fifteen years before divorcing, then Jones married her childhood sweetheart, William Donovan. Donovan died suddenly not long after their marriage, and when Jones was widowed she returned to Barnum’s circus.
As an adult, Jones became America’s most well known “bearded lady,” as well as the spokesperson and advocate for Barnum’s other “freaks,” a word she tried to abolish from the business. Jones died October 22, 1902 of tuberculosis at the age of thirty-seven.
“Noted Freak Dead.” Belvedere Daily Republican. Vol. 11. No. 201. October 23, 1902. p. 4.
“Street Sayings.” The Saint Paul Globe. Vol. 8. No. 169. June 18, 1886. p. 2.