On this Day 1972: ATV meets the ‘Smallest Woman in the World’

OTD, December 11th, 1972…

Report featuring the late Joyce Carpenter from Grafton Crescent, Charford, Bromsgrove who at 29 inches tall was the shortest woman in the world at the time.

Sadly, Joyce died in August 1973, aged 43, however had become a local personality and had also been featured in an ATV Network documentary broadcast on ITV on the 6th of December 1971 called Born to be Small made by Lord Snowdon and Derek Hart.

In this feature we see Joyce Carpenter leaving the home she shares with her mother, getting into a specially converted Mini and driving into Bromsgrove to collect her mother’s pension. We also see her walking along the pavement, standing next to a letter box where a child helps her to post a letter, and at home washing up standing on a step, hoovering and cleaning.

The audio for the report is Joyce describing her life, how she’s ‘got to make the best of it’, people’s attitudes to her height and her hopes for a relationship.

The adapted car was returned to the Department of Health and Social Security following her death She had been driving converted Mini for over two years. Her funeral was held at St Andrew’s Church, Charford.