In the age of the "Octomom," it’s easy to forget how incredibly rare and surprising multiple births were not long ago.
After all, when the Dionne Quints were born back in the 1930’s, they caused a massive media uproar. They were the world’s very first surviving quintuplets, and no one had ever seen the likes of them before.
Remarkably, their record, in a sense, stood for nearly thirty years. Though another set of quints were born in Argentina in the 1940s, they were fiercely shielded from the media.
Then, in 1963, a fresh wave of quint fever took the world by storm, when five children were born to Andrew and Mary Ann Fischer of Aberdeen, South Dakota.
Like the Dionne family before them, they became a sensation in the news, and people were relentlessly fascinated by the multiple births.
While the Fischers did their best to remain out of the public eye, it’s tough to fully state how important the quints were to the news media at the time.
Read on below to learn more!
In 1963, the modest Fischers were quiet family folks in Aberdeen, South Dakota, and already had five children.
When Mary Ann got pregnant again, they went to the doctor, thinking they were expecting a sixth. Both parents were stunned when a prenatal x-ray revealed five babies.
Their family, already large, was set to double, and quickly too.
Just days after the x-ray revealed the exciting news, Mary Ann Fischer went into labor, successfully delivering all five babies with help from her obstetrician, Dr. James Berbos.
For the family, the unexpected quints came as a blessing, but also as a bit of a shock.
Mr. Fischer, who earned his living as a grocery clerk, noted at the time that his wife shook when she received the news, telling the New York Times, "I don’t think I came to for a couple of days,” as reported by the Washington Post.
At the time of their birth, the quints were roughly two months premature, delivered on September 14th, 1963, at around seven months gestation.
The five babies were quite an exceptional bunch from the very beginning.
They number four girls and one boy; of the four girls, three were identical triplets.
The one boy among the quints was named James Andrew, the triplets were Mary Magdalene, Mary Margaret, and Mary Catherine, while the remaining baby girl, also the first born, was named Mary Ann after her mother.
The quintuplets were a tremendous sensation from the moment of their birth.
The five babies were closely monitored for 72 hours to see whether they would survive this critical time period.
With all eyes on the babies, the press flocked in from all over the world, desperate to interview the shell-shocked parents.
As Mary Ann Fischer noted in a much later interview with the Aberdeen-American News, reported by the New York Times, “I thought I was going to die, I was gaining 4 to 5 pounds a day.”
The children became a massive source of media and cultural interest right away, much like the Dionne family before them.
Their parents tried to shield them from most of the publicity, and largely succeeded, but allowed certain franchising opportunities because they needed to do what they could to feed ten hungry mouths.
Dolls were made of the quints, as well as other promotional materials.
Meanwhile, donations poured in from all over the world to help the family with their unexpected blessing.
The devoutly Catholic Fischers received recognition from the Pope and a lot of assistance from various religious organizations.
They also received plenty of local donations. The babies were the pride of Aberdeen, and their birthday was quickly commemorated with a memorial medal, with a motif of a five-petaled flower.
Even the town borders were marked with a sign declaring Aberdeen to be "Home of the Fischer 'Quints.'"
The Fischer parents passed away in recent years: Mary Ann Fischer in 2012, and Andrew Fischer in 2015.
The quints were followed by one additional sibling, and all eleven Fischer kids are still alive and well today.
The 'babies," now in their fifties, rarely give interviews, but Jim (James) Fischer noted to The New York Times in 2012 of himself and his sisters — who now go by Annie, Maggie, Cathy, and Margie. "We watch out for each other,” he said. “Growing up with media and everything, all the attention, it was always hard to trust people. It took a while before we let people in."
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