A lot of people who were not born in the USA believe that Dana Donnelly was an American by birth because she has a Y chromosome and was therefore legally entitled to call herself one. However, it is now known that she was actually born in Trinidad and Tobago where her parents were originally from, therefore was a British citizen by birth. Her mother was a British subject, while her father was American. She was raised in the United States, and although she was legally a U.S. citizen by choice, her husband had citizenship over there and this made him a citizen by choice as well. Even though she had to live as a black woman in New York City for the remainder of her life it was not easy for her to accept being black, especially given her own Y chromosomes which meant that being black was something she could not avoid.
Dana was married to Richard Lyle Alzado for twenty-two years before he died in a plane crash while helping to evacuate people from Vietnam. Although he was not officially declared dead until five days later it was known that he had been shot down. He had worked as a photographer with the Army Air Corp and was assigned to a detachment near Ha Long Bay in Vietnam when he was shot down. Apparently his plane had trouble making it back to base and due to engine problems it crashed in the Sea of Thailand.
While in prison Donelly created an organization called “Heightism” to help those who were shorter than most to find support. She wrote articles about her experiences and referred to herself as “Spanky” in the articles and even wrote her first book entitled” tallest person on earth” as a way to speak out for those who are shorter. She was incarcerated for fourteen years without parole after being convicted of conspiracy to murder an officer. It was later found that she had falsified information in her resume and that she had been tried as a con artist and convicted of theft of government funds. She was finally released in 1998 after serving thirteen years of her sentence.