World's longest-surviving conjoined twins who worked in carnivals and circuses as a sideshow act from the age of three - and always insisted they 'lived a good life' - die together at the age of 68

The world's oldest set of conjoined twins, Ronnie and Donnie Gaylon, 68, died on July 4, in their hometown of Dayton, Ohio.   

Ronnie and Donnie Galyon have been turning heads since they were born on October 28, 1951 to parents Eileen and Wesley Gaylon, who were not expecting twins, much less conjoined twins. 

They were born healthy, weighing 11 pounds, 11.5 ounces, but they spent the first two years of their life in the hospital as doctors struggled to figure out a way to safely separate them. When they were told there was no guarantee that both boys would survive the surgery, Wesley and Eileen refused to operate on their sons.

For 68 years, the brothers lived face-to-face, fused from the sternum to the groin with one set of lower digestive organs. They were each born with separate hearts and stomachs and had their own set of arms and legs.   

According to Ward Hall's biography, the twins mother rejected them when they were born - leaving them primarily to be raised by their father, Wesley and later their stepmother Mary.

Burdened by colossal medical bills that racked up from the twins first two years spent in the hospital and pressure to raise his family, Wesley decided to enter Donnie and Ronnie in the carnival where they had a lucrative career until they retired in 1991. 

'That was the only income. They were the breadwinners,' said their youngest brother Jim, who was born when the Donnie and Ronnie were aged 11.  

The twins learned to walk when they were 29 months, learning to take turns on who would walk backwards. Their parents hired occupational therapists to teach them everyday tasks such as tying shoes, using the toilet and learning how to work with each other as both brothers were born right handed - another complexity that required intense coordination.