The Fultz sisters (born May 23, 1946) were a set of American quadruplets who gained notoriety for being the first identical African American quadruplets on record. They appeared in advertisements for PET baby formula and were featured in Ebony magazine. They were also known as the Fultz quads in the media.

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Quick Facts Born, Died ...

The Fultz sisters
The Fultz sisters with Andrew Hatcher, 1962
Born	May 23, 1946 Reidsville, North Carolina, US
Died	Mary Louise Fultz Teague 1991 (aged 45) Mary Ann Fultz Bostic 1995 (aged 49) Mary Alice Fultz 2001 (aged 55) Mary Catherine Fultz Griffin 2018 (aged 72)
Other names	Fultz Quads

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The Fultz sisters were born on May 23, 1946, in Reidsville, North Carolina.^[1] They were born prematurely, at about 3.5 pounds (1.6 kg) each.^[1] They were born in the segregated basement wing of Annie Penn Hospital.^[1][2] They were delivered by Fred Klenner, a white doctor who had served the family for years prior.^[1][2] Klenner had expected triplets, due to a previous x-ray scan showing three infants.^[3] Klenner was assisted by a Black nurse named Margaret Ware.^[1] There was no incubator, so the infants were laid next to one another for warmth, with cotton gauze blankets and "an old, used single-unit hot plate and an equally old 10-quart kettle," as Klenner later described.^[4]

The sisters' parents were tobacco sharecroppers James "Pete" Fultz Jr. (born April 15, 1893, in Madison) and Annie Mae Troxler Fultz (born May 14, 1909, in Rockingham County).^[1][3] Annie Mae, who was African American and Cherokee, had been deaf and mute since contracting meningitis as a child.^[1][3] Annie Mae could not read or write.^[4] The sisters had six older siblings: four brothers and two sisters.^[1] Pete had two brothers with multiple births; one had one set of twins, and the other had three sets of twins, and each had 15 children.^[1]

When they were born, Annie Mae considered several sets of names: Betty, Clara, Billie, and Anne; Laurinda, Belinda, Lucinda, and Magenda; and Rosetta, Loretta, Margretta, and Henrietta.^[5][2] The sisters were ultimately named by Klenner, who chose the name "Mary" followed by names of women in his own family, naming the sisters Mary Louise, Mary Ann, Mary Alice, and Mary Catherine.^[2] Throughout their lives, the sisters were referred to by their second names.^[6]

Upon their birth, Klenner experimentally treated the sisters with high doses of injected vitamin C, believing like Linus Pauling that this treatment contributed positively to their health.^[3] Klenner, who was originally from Pennsylvania and of German American descent, was later described in local press as "either very Old South or an outright racist", according to O magazine.^[3][2] During World War II, he had openly been a Nazi sympathizer and defended Adolf Hitler. His office often contained white supremacist and conservative materials, such as pamphlets from the John Birch Society and the White Citizens Council and a poster for George Wallace's 1968 presidential campaign.^[3][2]

The sisters finally left the hospital at five months old, with nurses continuing their vitamin treatments.^[3] Saylor and Ware were considered the sisters' caretakers, and the rest of the Fultz family was allowed to visit them without restrictions.^[1] In 1947, Annie Mae became pregnant with an eleventh child, a boy named Leonard.^[3][2]

In 1950, the sisters met President Harry S. Truman.^[2]

In 1952, the Fultz sisters were legally adopted by Saylor and her husband.^[1] The Saylors had previously had a child die due to polio.^[3] Pet bought a house for the Saylors in Milton, 30 miles (48 km) from the Fultz farm, and the sisters moved there.^[2] Also in 1952, the sisters began attending school at Caswell County Training School in Yanceyville.^[7] The Saylors continued to work with the Fultz sisters in their custody.^[6] Annie Mae and Pete remained on the farm near Madison, though it was unproductive. The Fultzes and their friends and family cited hilly and infertile land, while Pet blamed Pete and said he drank too much.^[2]

Saylor was a piano player, and taught the sisters to sing.^[1] The sisters could play several instruments.^[6] In November 1959, when the girls were 13, they performed as a string quarter in the annual Orange Blossom Festival in Miami, Florida.

In April 1964, just before they turned 18 years old, the sisters attended a debutante ball for Zeta Phi Beta, becoming members of the sorority.^[8] In 1965, they graduated from Caswell County Training School.^[9]

The sisters, as a unit, had a four-year scholarship to Bethune–Cookman University. They skipped classes and had poor grades, and were forced to withdraw from the school after two years.^[6] Shortly after their withdrawal from Bethune–Cookman, the Saylors and the Fultz sisters moved to Peekskill, New York, in the hopes of creating a career in show business.^[6] They enrolled in the Barbizon School of Modeling and appeared in various ad campaigns.^[10][9] In 1968, at 22 years old, the sisters were living with the Saylors in a two-bedroom apartment in an integrated housing project in Peekskill. They were working in a garment factory for low wages.^[6]

Later, they all became nurses' aides, living in different cities.^[9] Each of the sisters had one child; Catherine said: "We were all scared to death that we would have multiple births, so we stopped at one".^[9]

Mary Louise died April 1, 1991 (age 45); Mary Ann died in 1996 (age 49); Mary Alice died October 7, 2001 (age 55); and Mary Catherine died October 2, 2018 (age 71).^[11] All four sisters had breast cancer, and Mary Louise, Mary Ann, and Mary Alice died of breast cancer. Mary Catherine died of cancer in her spine and chest.^[11] Before Mary Catherine died, she expressed her belief that their cancer was caused by the vitamin shots administered to the sisters as children.^[3]