Texas woman discovers she was born white after 70 years
A US woman who has identified as African American her whole life has found out she was actually white – at the age of 70.
Verda Byrd, from Texas, was born Jeanette Beagle in September 1942, into a family of ten children.
The children were removed from her family home after he father left them and her mother fell seriously ill.
Jeanette was adopted by by Ray and Edwinna Wagner, a financially secure black family from Kansas.
She was raised as their only child and eventually got married and had a daughter of her own.
In 2013, Ms Byrd decided to look for information on her biological parents.
KENS 5 TV reported it was then, at 70 years old, her elderly adoptive mother told her that her birth parents were white.
Mrs Wagner died soon after that.
'She took it to her grave that she had a white daughter,' Mrs Byrd told KENS 5 TV.
Mrs Byrd was shocked by the confession.
'It's was unbelievable,' she said.
