# Yvonne Thornton

Yvonne S. Thornton is an American obstetrician-gynecologist, musician and author, best known for her memoir, The Ditchdigger's Daughters.

## Background, education and career

Thornton was born in New York City and raised in Long Branch, New Jersey as the third of five children to Donald (1925-1983) and Itasker Thornton (1915-1977), where she graduated from Long Branch High School. Her father, a ditchdigger, and a veteran of World War II, had a dream for each of his six children, all African-American girls, to become doctors. The struggle and story of this journey in spite of economic, racial and gender-based boundaries later became the subject of The Ditchdigger's Daughters. She cited her experiences in her childhood as being highly influential on her choice to attend medical school.
Thornton graduated from Monmouth University, and was accepted to medical school at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons. During that summer, Thornton was the first contestant of color to appear on the original Jeopardy! with Art Fleming as host. In 1979, Thornton and her husband volunteered for active duty in the United States Navy, where she received her commission as lieutenant commander in the medical corps and was stationed at the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland. In 1981, Thornton became the first Black woman in the United States to become board-certified in maternal-fetal medicine. She subsequently practiced at New York Hospital-Cornell Medical Center in New York, Morristown Memorial Hospital in New Jersey and St. Luke's-Roosevelt Hospital Center in New York throughout much of the next two decades. Her expertise in chorionic villus sampling drew the attention of Oprah Winfrey, who first invited her on her show in 1993. In 1995, Thornton wrote The Ditchdigger's Daughters about her parents' dream of making their children doctors; the success of the book caught Winfrey's eye and landed Thornton a return appearance on the show. The Ditchdigger's Daughters was critically acclaimed, translated into 19 languages and was turned into a television movie produced by the Family Channel in 1997, with Carl Lumbly in the lead role portraying her father (Donald Thornton) and for which Kimberly Elise won Best Supporting Actress at the 1997 CableACE Awards.
In 1996, Thornton received her Masters in Public Health degree in health policy and management from the Columbia University School of Public Health, and in 1997 she published her second book, entitled Woman to Woman. She eventually rose to the rank of full professor and was appointed to the faculty of Weill Cornell Medical College as a professor of clinical obstetrics and gynecology in 2003. She now holds the faculty position of professor emeritus of obstetrics and gynecology at New York Medical College.

## Early musical years

Prior to becoming a physician, at age 7, Thornton began playing alto saxophone and at age 9, she and her sisters formed a family jazz band called "The Thornettes". As they grew older, the jazz combo developed into an all-girl Rhythm-and-Blues (R&B) family band known as "The Thornton Sisters". Their mother (Itasker) was the wardrobe mistress, and also played upright and then electric bass. Her older sister, Donna, played tenor saxophone; Jeanette played electric guitar; Linda played drums and was lead vocalist while her youngest sister, Rita, played piano and keyboards. Their father, Donald, was the road manager.
At age 11, The Thornton Sisters performed on the then-popular Ted Mack and the Original Amateur Hour. Their performance appears in the Motion Picture, Broadcasting and Recorded Sound Division of the Library of Congress
Two years later, the sextet went on to win an unprecedented six consecutive weeks on Amateur Night at Harlem's world famous Apollo Theatre. The coveted prize was a paid week of appearances with professional artists, such as Shep and the Limelites, Fats Domino, and Ernie K-Doe. A year later, in 1962, The Thornton Sisters were featured at The Brooklyn Fox with Murray the "K" and his Swingin' Soiree, performing with Fabian, The Shirelles, Chuck Jackson, and The Four Seasons. During that year, The Thornton Sisters signed with Roulette Records and then Atlantic Records. However, the mandated personal appearance tours conflicted with their academic pursuits and the contracts were canceled. In 1965, The Thornton Sisters recorded "Watch Your Step" (written by Jeanette Thornton) and "Big City Boy" on the BobSan label.
After the Brooklyn Fox, for the next thirteen years (1963–1976) The Thornton Sisters were on the "college circuit" performing on weekends at many fraternities and eating clubs of many colleges and universities in order to defray the cost of their tuition for medical and dental schools. Eventually Donna (1944–1993) became a court stenographer and Jeanette (1945–2020) earned two doctorates, EdD and MD. Linda is a board-certified dentist, earning her DDS from New York University and becoming the first Black female board-certified prosthodontic oral surgeon in the United States, and Rita earned a JD (Juris Doctor) in law and a PhD in environmental science.

## Personal life

Thornton married her medical school classmate Shearwood J. McClelland in 1974; he was the director of Orthopaedic Surgery at Harlem Hospital Center in Harlem, New York for 25 years, and he died in 2023. Dr. McClelland Obituary. They have two children, both physicians; Shearwood McClelland, III and Kimberly I. McClelland. She has been a resident of Teaneck, New Jersey.

## Awards and honors

Thornton has received numerous honors over the years, including several honorary doctorate degrees. Her second memoir, Something to Prove: A Daughter's Journey to Fulfill a Father's Legacy, was released in December 2010 and was named the Grand Prize Winner of the 2011 New York Book Festival. Thornton was named the 2013 Living Legend by the Joseph Tyler Chapter of the National Medical Association. In its 250th year, Thornton was honored in 2017 with the Virginia Kneeland Frantz award for Distinguished Women in Medicine, which is the highest recognition for an alumna of the Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons.

## Publications

* (2018) A Life-Saving and Life-Taking 19th Century Medical Instrument” The Pharos, Autumn, pp. 20–24 http://alphaomegaalpha.org/pharos/2018/Autumn/2018-4-HalperinThornton.pdf
* (2011) Inside Information for Women: Answers to the Mysteries of the Female Body and Her Health. Ludlow Seminars, Ltd. ISBN 978-1-60984-463-9
* (2010) Something to Prove: A Daughter's Journey to Fulfill a Father's Legacy, Kaplan Publishing. ISBN 1-60714-724-6
* (1997) Woman to Woman: A Leading Gynecologist Tells You All You Need To Know About Your Body and Your Health, Dutton Adult. ISBN 0-525-94297-1
* (1997) Primary Care for the Obstetrician and Gynecologist, Igaku-Shoin, New York. ISBN 0-89640-324-6
* (1995) The Ditchdigger's Daughters: A Black Family's Astonishing Success Story, Kensington Publishing Co. ISBN 1-55972-271-1