Since entering Ohio State University in the fall, Sarah had promised herself that every Sunday afternoon she would take a break from her studies and enjoy a cup of coffee while leisurely reading the newspaper. She was especially drawn to the entertainment and world news, but occasionally peeked at the obituary page to see if any deaths were reported among the rich and famous. While scanning the obituaries, her eye caught the photograph of a woman with an important sounding name: Dawn Langley Simmons. While reading the story, she noticed her roommate had slipped into the apartment after an early morning study session.
“Hey, Julie, listen to this. It’s from an obituary I’m reading,” Sarah called out. “On September 18th, at the age of 63, Dawn Langley Simmons, born Gordon Langley Hall, the illegitimate son of Marjorie Hurst Ticehurst and a man named Jack Cooper, died in Charleston, South Carolina.
“The column mentions something about Vita Sackville-West being Gordon’s mentor when he was a budding author in England. Weren’t you reading something by or about Vita Sackville-West for your 20th century novelists course?”
“Actually, I was reading Orlando by Virginia Woolf,” replied Julie. “Woolf dedicated her book to Sackville-West. It’s about a young nobleman who over a period of almost 400 years becomes a woman and ultimately has a child. I think the book’s message is that society imposes artificial gender restrictions by limiting the roles and minimizing the importance and influence of women in society. Virginia Woolf was obviously a woman ahead of her time. That said, I’ve never heard of Dawn Langley Simmons.”
Intrigued, Sarah continued. “There’s more. Mrs. Simmons, or Gordon Hall, claimed that she was born with an adrenal abnormality that caused the female genitals to appear male at birth. Consequently, she was raised as a boy. After moving to America and settling in Charleston, South Carolina, she underwent a sex change operation and then a year later she married John Paul Simmons, an African-American sculptor and mechanic. According to the story, it seems her biracial marriage in 1969 caused more of a stir in Charleston than the fact that she lived 30 years of her life as a man.”
Sarah read on, “Now this is really interesting. The paper says soon after her marriage, Dawn allegedly became pregnant and had a baby in 1972.”
“Oh, come on,” interrupted Julie. “I thought you said she was born male. How could she have a child? I don’t think modern medicine has come that far, and it sounds like he, or she, took the story of Orlando a little too seriously.”
“Well, I don’t know,” Sarah argued. “In my human genetics course we’ve been talking about sex determination, and I think we discussed something similar to this. I think it’s possible.”
“You’re kidding, right?” Julie scoffed. “If Dawn Simmons was really Gordon Hall then there is no way she could have had a child. You must have missed the lectures on reproduction.”
“Well, the obituary goes on to say that Mrs. Simmons wrote an autobiography in 1995 called Dawn: A Charleston Legend. I have got to get a hold of a copy of that book. Maybe I’ll ask my genetics professor if she thinks any of this makes sense from a biological point of view.”
Date Posted: 03/27/01 mb, revised 12/17/03 ns
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