Fultz Quads
*The Fultz Quadruplets were born on this date in 1946. They were the first identical Black quad babies born in the United States.
The Fultz Quads: Mary Louise, Mary Ann, Mary Alice, and Mary Catherine were born at Annie Penn Hospital in Reidsville, N.C. The Quads’ parents, sharecropper Pete and deaf-mute mother Annie Mae, lived on a farm with their six other children but were too poor to care for the babies. Multiple births were rare then, and the equipment for underweight babies wasn’t as prevalent as in modern times.
The girls were delivered in what was known as “the Basement,” according to a 2002 report by journalist and educator Lorraine Ahearn. This “basement” was the Blacks-only wing of Annie Penn, and Klenner and African American nurse Margaret Ware helped Annie Mae give birth. The Fultz girls became baby celebrities, while Fred Klenner, the white doctor who delivered them into the world, exploited them for fame and money. Since the Fultz family couldn’t read or write, Dr. Klenner named the girls after his family members.
When news of the quads spread nationally, curious onlookers and media began sniffing around for photo opportunities. At the time, baby formula companies such as Gerber and PET wanted to use the quads to start an ad campaign to sell their products to the Black community. Black families didn’t buy formula during the late ’40s, as many mothers opted to breastfeed because the baby formula was expensive.
Klenner struck a deal with PET for an undisclosed amount, and the Fultz Quads were well on becoming celebrities. The quads’ starred in ads in Ebony Magazine, and they even made the publication's cover. But all this notoriety came with a price as Klenner used the girls for his “Vitamin C therapy,” which he claimed made the girls healthy along with the PET evaporated milk formula. While Klenner reaped the financial benefits, PET Milk Company gave the Fultz quads a farm, a nurse, food, and medical care.
Even more revealing, he displayed them in a glass-enclosed nursery when Klenner returned the girls home. In a follow-up story reported by Ebony, the nurse Pet assigned to them and her husband ultimately adopted the then 22-year-old sisters. They struggled with adulthood. The farm they were given was on difficult land, and Pet paid the quads just $350 a month, leaving them virtually broke. The girls became the third quadruplets in America to survive until adulthood. But according to Ahearn's story, three of the sisters died of breast cancer, with Catherine Fultz Griffin believed to be the last surviving Fultz quadruplet.
