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SALT LAKE CITY -- For the first time, a Salt Lake City woman is talking about the accident that clipped her 28-foot-long fingernails.
Lee Redmond is undoubtedly one of the most famous Guinness record holders of all time, but this year that all changed.
Redmond became known for her nails, which she hadn't cut since 1979. Measuring in at a total of 28 feet, 4 inches long, 66-year-old Redmond held the record for the world's longest nails on a female hand since 2002.
But in February, that all changed when Redmond was thrown from her car in crash. She was OK, but her nails were the casualty.
"The first thing I spotted was a fingernail, and I thought,' Ohh.' Then I started to cry and said, ‘There's one of my fingernails.' A sweet lady picked them up and I told her they were a Guinness world record, so she went around and gathered fragments of fingernails."
"It was just something I had to accept because I couldn't change anything," Redmond said of her loss.
Redmond says the crash has turned into a blessing because she never could have cut the nails herself.
The Guiness book of World records will honor Redmond in its 2010 edition, the last time she'll be featured in the book.
She won't try growing them out again.
"I probably wouldn't live for 30 more years," the 68-year-old great-grandmother explained.
The car crash was so serious that the first 911 callers thought Redmond had died.
E-mail: athomas@ksl.com
