Those who read my first book, The Ditchdigger’s Daughters, know that my parents, a blue-collar laborer and a domestic, valued education above all. They knew it was the way to a better life for their daughters.

But how did they find the money to put five girls through college, with four of us going on to get advanced degrees in medicine, dentistry and law?

We spent our weekends touring as The Thornton Sisters, playing for college dances, appearing at the Apollo, and recording records.

I’m writing the above because I just discovered that, 44 years after we recorded it, an old Thornton Sisters record is playing on YouTube.  Who would have thought it?

– Yvonne S. Thornton, MD, MPH