The Fultz Sisters facts for kids

The Fultz Sisters, also known as the Fultz Quads, were born on May 23, 1946. They were the first identical African-American quadruplets ever recorded. They even appeared in ads for PET baby formula.

The Fultz Sisters' Amazing Birth

The birth of quadruplets was very rare in the 1940s, especially before modern fertility treatments. The Fultz family was also poor and Black, which made the sisters' birth a huge national news story. The Fultz Quads were born on May 23, 1946, at Cone Health Annie Penn Hospital in Reidsville, North Carolina.

Their parents were Pete Fultz and Annie Mae Fultz. Pete was a sharecropper, and Annie Mae could not hear or speak. They already had six other children, so it was very hard for them to afford everything their family needed.

Born Prematurely

The sisters were all born early, weighing only three pounds each. They were born in a special area of the hospital called "the basement," which was only for Black patients at that time. Dr. Fred Klenner and a Black nurse named Margaret Ware helped deliver the babies.

The hospital did not have incubators to keep the tiny babies warm. So, the nurses wrapped them in cotton blankets and placed them close together. The sisters were named Mary Louise, Mary Ann, Mary Alice, and Mary Catherine.

Help for the Family

Because the Fultz sisters' parents were too poor to raise all their children, Dr. Klenner and another nurse, Elma Saylor, helped provide for them. Dr. Klenner chose the names for the girls. He named them all Mary, followed by names of women in his own family.

Ann was for Dr. Klenner's wife, Louise for his daughter, Alice for his aunt, and Catherine for his great-aunt.

Music and Life After College

Music was a big part of the Fultz sisters' lives. They went to Bethune–Cookman University to study music. They were accepted into the college as a group and received a four-year scholarship.

While in college, the sisters were always together. However, they faced health problems and missed classes, which caused their grades to drop. They attended the university for about two years before the school asked their parents to take them home.

Life After College

Their nurse, Elma Saylor, said that leaving school made the girls feel sad for a long time. They eventually moved back home to live with Elma Saylor and her husband. The Fultz sisters still wanted to be famous and decided to try show business.

When they were twenty-two, they started an amateur band and tried performing in nightclubs. Together, the four sisters learned to play many instruments, including the piano, guitar, viola, drums, cello, violin, and organ. They could sing together beautifully, but each sister also had her own special musical talents. Later, they all became nurses' aides, following in the footsteps of Mrs. Saylor, who had cared for them for so long.

Fame and PET Milk Deals

The Fultz Quads meeting President John F. Kennedy at the White House.

Pet Milk company wanted the Fultz Quads to help them sell baby formula to Black families. In the 1940s, baby formula was very expensive, so most Black mothers breastfed their babies.

Pet Milk made a deal with Dr. Fred Klenner. Pet Milk agreed to pay all the medical bills for the girls' birth. They also promised to hire a nurse to live with the family, provide the girls with their own farmland, give the family a house, and pay $350 each month for their care.

Public Appearances

When they were 13, in November 1959, the girls performed as a string quartet at the Orange Blossom festival in Miami, Florida. The Fultz sisters also appeared in magazines like Ebony. They were first featured in Ebony when they were just one year old.

The Fultz sisters were so popular that at one point, you could even get an autographed picture of them from an advertisement. The sisters also appeared on television shows. They met important people like Presidents John F. Kennedy and Harry Truman, and famous tennis player Althea Gibson.

The Sisters' Later Lives

None of the Fultz sisters are still alive today. Mary Louise passed away in 1991 when she was 45. Mary Ann died in 1995 at age 49. Mary Alice passed away in 2001 at 55, and Mary Catherine in 2018 at 72.

All of their deaths were caused by breast cancer. Before Mary Catherine passed away, she thought that this disease might have been caused by a shot they received in the hospital when they were born. It was amazing that the Fultz Sisters lived so long. They were born very early, and at that time, hospitals did not have the right equipment to care for quadruplets. The Fultz Sisters received special care, like being fed with an eye-dropper and being kept warm without incubators.