HEIGHT: THE TALL AND SORT OF IT

Bill Port and Jane Wernsman are the long and short of it when it comes to height.

Port, the administrator of Doctors' Park, is 6 feet 6 inches; Wernsman, a nurse and nurse supervisor at the Cape Girardeau County Health Center, is 5 feet 1 inch.

Although being tall or short can be a challenge both physically and psychologically, Port and Wernsman say they have accepted their extremes without complaint or resentment. That's not always true for some, particularly short people who are sensitive about their height and take offense to jokes about it.

Wernsman said other than some good-natured teasing about her short stature in high school, college, and later in nursing school, she never felt different from the other students and was accepted by her friends and classmates for who she was and not how short she was.

Wernsman's older brother is 5 feet 11 inches and her older sister is 5 feet 4. Said Wernsman: "I realized I wasn't going to get any taller by the time I was in eighth or ninth grade, or a freshman in high school. I already knew I was going to be a short person. My grandmother was a small person, and there was a history of smallness in the family, so there was no expectancy on the part of my parents that I was going to be 6 feet tall."

Port comes from a family of tall people, so it was only natural that he and his brother would be tall. Both are the same height; Port's father was 6 feet 6 and his mother 5 feet 8.

"By today's standards, a 6-foot-tall person isn't that unusual," Port said. "The University of Missouri just signed two basketball players that are over 7 feet tall."

Port is originally from St. Louis. He also lived in Alton, Ill., which was the home of the Gentle Alton Giant, Robert Wadlow. At 8 feet 11 inches, Wadlow was believed to be the tallest man in the world.

"Wadlow was a member of the Masonic lodge in Alton," said Port. "I once had the opportunity to sit in the lodge chair that was made for him. It was a huge chair, even for me. It reminded me of the display chair in front of Uncle Ralph's Furniture Store."

Wadlow, who died in July 1940 from a foot infection caused by an ankle brace used to support his large frame, visited Cape Girardeau many times to purchase his size 34 shoes, which were made here.

Wernsman and Port said clothing used to be a major problem because of their heights. "Before there was a petite clothing line, it was a real problem finding clothes that would fit," said Wernsman. "Anytime my mother bought me clothes -- a dress or pants -- she always had to sew up the hem."

Port's clothing problems were similar. He wears a size 13 shoe. His inseam is 37 inches. He wears a size 15 1/2 shirt, but has a sleeve length of 36 inches, and a size 44 coat, extra long.

Port said: "At one time they didn't make clothing that large; it had to be special-made. If you went to a men's store or a department store, the longest sleeve-length shirt they had in stock was 35 inches. I used to have my suits tailor-made.

"It's gotten better with the tall and large men's clothing stores. I can even go to a Thorngate sale and buy something right off the rack."

As the tallest kid in his class, Port was always in the back row when class pictures were made. But he was first in line at commencement because the tallest students went first, from the back row.

"All during the years I was growing up, my mother drove my brother and me to distraction by always telling us to keep our heads up, shoulders straight and not to walk stooped over," he recalled fondly.

Port didn't play basketball or go out for track in high school. "I was a dreadful disappointment to the coaches," he said. "I had no coordination whatsoever. I couldn't dribble a basketball down the court."

His only sport was swimming, where he was able to make good use of the back stroke.

Other than the usual jokes, like "How's the weather up there?" Port said he never encountered any psychological problems associated with his height. He said, "I do not think of myself as tall, and it never occurs to me that I am tall until I meet someone of my height, who I can look right in the face.

"My wife, Barbara, is 1 foot shorter than I am. When I was in high school there was one guy who was taller than I was. We were best friends."

Wernsman said her best friend in college was 6 feet tall. "She would hold out her arm and I would stand underneath her arms," said Wernsman. "I believe my friends and classmates kind of looked out for me and were protective toward me because of my small stature."

Wernsman said being a short person had its advantages and disadvantages. "After I was in my teens, I could still pass for a 10-year-old, she said. "But when I was 30, I was still being `carded' when I went into a place where alcoholic beverages and drinks were sold."

Wernsman said while in college and nursing school, she "always had to make that extra effort to show that her small size would not interfere with her work as a nurse."

If there's a particular physical challenge to being short, Wernsman said it is shelves. "If I need something from the shelf or cabinet, I get up on the countertop or use the stepladder, or my husband or daughter lend a hand."

Her husband is 5 feet 10; her daughter, 10, is shoulder high to her mother.

Another adjustment is driving the car or her husband's pickup truck. Wernsman has to push the seat forward as far as possible to drive either vehicle.

For Port, his height requires him to always watch his step when going through a doorway or being in a room with a low ceiling.

"Fortunately, we live in an older home in the center of Cape that has 12-foot-high ceilings," he said. "When you're as tall as I am, and you look at a new car or buy a house, you have to make sure you'll have enough room. But overall, being tall is a positive thing. It's great for parades, and you're always easy to spot in the crowd. It's a lot easier being a tall person in our world than a small person."