normal life. She returned to her grandmother's farm. In spring 1892, she met a circus performer, Professor William Heckler, who talked her into stopping shaving and got her employment with John Robinson's Circus. She tried several stage names before eventually settling on Lady Olga Roderick. At that time, her beard was 13 inches long. She went back to North Carolina every winter until her grandmother died in 1899. She worked with the Robinson circus for fourteen years. At some point during her life, Barnell worked as a trapeze artist before having a railroad accident that ended her career. She then became a commercial photographer. Barnell toured for a time with a number of circuses, including the Ringling Brothers circus, and later joined Hubert's Museum in Times Square, New York City. She appeared in a Tod Browning's Freaks (1932) which, according to the DVD documentary, left her unhappy with the overall portrayal of the sideshow performers in the film. In April 1935, she was working at the Ringling Brothers' sideshow at Madison Square Garden. In 1940, she was interviewed by Joseph Mitchell for an article for The New Yorker. His interview is one of the few sources that exists about her life. Her date and place of death has been erroneously reported online as October 26, 1951. That date comes from some researchers confusing her death with that of a Susan Jane Barnell. When approached by Diane Arbus about information regarding her death, Joseph Mitchell verified her passing. Barnell died on July 21, 1945 in Manhattan. Her remains were cremated by the New York and New Jersey Cremation Company. Personal life Barnell was married four times. Her first marriage was to a German musician who played in the band for John Robinson's Circus. She had two children with him. Her husband and their two children died within several years. Her second husband was a balloonist who was killed months after their marriage. Her third marriage was to an alcoholic whom she divorced. Her last marriage, in 1931, was to her manager Thomas O'Boyle, an orphan ex-circus clown and a sideshow talker for Hubert's Dime Museum. She had little contact with her family after she became a performer. She believed they thought she was a disgrace. By 1940, she claimed to have not seen her siblings in 22 years and believed them to be dead. One of her sisters worked as a