One-time heaviest woman dies at 63

[Keith]

AUBURNDALE, Fla. - Rosalie Bradford, who held records for being the world's heaviest woman and for losing the most weight, has died. She was 63.

Bradford weighed 1,050 pounds in January 1987, according to the 1994 Guinness Book of Records. She lost 736 pounds to weigh 314 pounds in September 1992, according to the record book.

She died Wednesday at a hospital in Lakeland, about 10 miles from her Auburndale home in central Florida.

Publicist Stephen Nortier said Bradford weighed around 400 pounds just before dying. He said the cause of death won't be known until a medical examiner's report, but Bradford had spent the last year bedridden with complications from having her lymph nodes severed years ago.

At her largest, Bradford was 8 feet wide and took 90 minutes to bathe.

She credited Richard Simmons, the flamboyant fitness guru, with helping her lose weight. The two began corresponding after a friend of Bradford's wrote Simmons when she tried to commit suicide.

Bradford blamed her lifelong battle with obesity on abandonment, which bred a food addiction. Her Web site claims her peak weight was more than 1,200 pounds.

"I was just like an addict — lie, cheat, steal, whatever to get my drug of choice. And my drug of choice was food," Bradford said in a 1999 interview with The Ledger of Lakeland.

Now that's what you call a BIG woman.

[bandnerd]

Yes. Obesity is funny.

[Karried]

What makes if funny? What did I miss?

I think it's horrible... what a sad life.. poor thing.

[bandnerd]

It was sarcasm, dear I thought Keith's comment at the end about "now that's what you call a BIG woman" was distasteful and was really only commenting on that.

[Karried]

Oh gotcha! I didn't see that comment at the end... I knew there had to something more ..I know you well enough to know something was odd about 'obesity being funny' ..I need more coffee or lasik! lol

[bandnerd]

lol no worries, Karrie Yesterday I was making cookies (speaking of obesity...stupid hormones made me do it!) and I misread the recipe thinking it called for one stick of butter, not one cup. Big difference there.

"My this cookie dough seems dry. Did I add too much flour? Ooooooh....I need another stick of butter. Gotcha."

I had about 3/4 of one stick left in the fridge (I never have butter, very rare occurrence) so I put in peanut butter chips along with the chocolate to help out lol.

Frankly, the cookies are the bomb-diggity. I never bake. It was just so cold I had to bake something! Fat kid's gotta eat!

[Keith]

It was sarcasm, dear I thought Keith's comment at the end about "now that's what you call a BIG woman" was distasteful and was really only commenting on that.

That sentence might have been distasteful, but I was just stating the truth. Obesity is not funny, however, when the obesity is caused by eating too much (which the lady admitted), then it's her own fault. If it's a medical condition, then I feel sorry for them. If it is an eating addiction, then they need to get help.

[bandnerd]

That's just it, she DID seek help. She lost over 700 pounds.

[Curt]

I really didnt see anything distastefull at all about Keiths comment...it was obvious she was a big woman...thats the truth...that is big.

[bandnerd]

If it's so obvious then it doesn't eve need to be said.

She led a sad life, she tried to make it better, and managed to live a long life despite her major issue with food. I'm not saying she wasn't big, because yeah, she was. But I don't have to go pointing that all out WHEN SHE DIED.

It'd be like, haha, your dad had brain cancer, bandnerd. Now that's what you'd call weird behavior. It's childish and unnecessary.

Maybe because I'm a woman I'm a little more sensitive to rude comments.