Tyler

By MEGAN MIDDLETON
Staff Writer

The author of the book, "The Ditchdigger's Daughters: A Black Family's Astonishing Success Story," shared her inspirational family story with students gathered for the Freshman/New Student Convocation Tuesday at the University of Texas at Tyler.

The book was the featured text in this year's summer reading program for the incoming students.

More than 600 freshmen will start their college careers at UT Tyler today -- the first day of school -- along with about 1,200 transfer and graduate students.

Dr. Yvonne Thornton, a double board-certified specialist in obstetrics, gynecology and maternal-fetal medicine from New Jersey, spoke in detail to the incoming students about growing up as the daughter of a ditch digger in a family of five girls at a time when gender roles were distinct.

"If you were a woman, you weren't expected to do anything," Dr. Thornton said, adding you "were supposed to marry a doctor, not be a doctor."

But her parents, who wanted more for their children, kept a steady focus on them obtaining an education.

"My parents said, 'Believe in yourself. Don't let anybody define who you are,'" she said.

Her parents expected "pointy letters" not "curved letters" from their children -- which meant no Bs or Cs and definitely not Ds, just As.

"Education was the only thing that would allow us to rise above our poverty and stand on equal terms with anybody -- white, black, male, female, rich or poor," she said.

It was her father's dream for her and her sisters to become doctors.

"If you could make somebody well, it didn't make any difference what color you were," she said. "All five of the daughters were supposed to be doctors -- preposterous, improbable, unheard of. But that was the dream my father and mother dreamed about every day. And it hardened into a single-minded determination that fueled our lives for many, many years to come."

Music become the way of "paying the tolls" on the road to becoming physicians, she said.

The women of the family formed a band called "The Thornton Sisters" with the help of her father and were featured on a television show called "Ted Mack & the Original Amateur Hour," which Dr. Thornton showed students a clip of during her speech. They also went on to perform at the Apollo Theatre in the early 1960s. They also later toured up and down the East Coast at various universities.

Her father made sure his daughters stay focused on education, though.

"If you're educated, nobody can take that from you," she told students.

The musical success allowed the family to make money to pay for tuition to college, and later Dr. Thornton got into medical school at Columbia University.

During her talk with the students, Dr. Thornton read passages from her book, which was turned into a movie, including an emotional moment when her father came to visit her at work.

She was being paged at the hospital, "Dr. Thornton, Dr. Thornton, line five, line five" and was told she was needed at the front desk. According to her book, dressed in her whites and with a stethoscope around her neck, she went down the hall to where her father was waiting.

The passage reads, "He was standing with his head cocked, his eyes on a corner of the ceiling, a rapt expression on his face that I couldn't read � I followed his gaze to the far corner. He was staring at a loudspeaker for the paging system. 'Could they do that again?'

'Do what?'

'Call your name.'"

She asked the operator to repeat the page, she told students at Tuesday's event.

She read from her book, "Daddy turned an ecstatic face to me. 'Did you ever hear anything sound so great, Cookie?'"

Dr. Thornton graduated from Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons. Her remaining living sisters, while they did not all become physicians, did all become doctors, she writes in her book.

And her son is training to be a neurosurgeon, and her daughter is applying to medical school.

Dr. Thornton was the first black woman in the country to become board certified in maternal fetal medicine, she said.

"This tells you what one can do with the power of a dream," Dr. Thornton, 61, said.

At the close of her speech, she sang "Wind Beneath My Wings" as photos of her family flashed on the screen, including photos of her diplomas and of her at graduation with her parents.

"I thought it was great -- very inspiring," Jennifer Jackson, an 18-year-old from Jefferson and incoming freshman to UT Tyler, said of Dr. Thornton's speech.

Angela Gash, an 18-year-old from Cedar Park and incoming freshman to UT Tyler, said she was "amazed by her determination � that she kept trying to reach her goal."

Robert Sterken, special assistant to the president for external affairs, said Tuesday's convocation is a "kickoff" for the new students' academic careers.

Dr. Peter Fos, UT Tyler provost and vice president of academic affairs, as well as UT Tyler President Dr. Rod Mabry also spoke at the convocation, encouraging students to get involved and push themselves academically.

Sterken said this event is geared toward academics and intended to be inspirational.

"I loved her speech," Sterken said of Dr. Thornton's message, noting it's what students need to hear. "You want them to think about hard work and perseverance � She did that for us."

CONVOCATION SPEAKER: Dr. Yvonne Thornton, a double board-certified specialist in obstetrics, gynecology and maternal-fetal medicine from New Jersey, speaks to incoming UT Tyler students on Tuesday.
(Courtesy Photo)