Triple Twins Born To Cedar Rapids Woman

The birth of three sets of twins to three separate women on April 20, 2010, at St. Luke's Hospital in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, got Dennis Murphy's attention. That's because the Cedar Rapids man was in the third set of twins born to one woman in Cedar Rapids. (See today's Ramblin' column in The Gazette.)

Judith Irene Sewell Murphy was just 20 years old when she delivered her third set of twins. It was covered in The Gazette at the time. A story also appeared in Look magazine on Nov. 11, 1958. Each of the children received a copy of the magazine for their memory books, so Donnie showed me his well-worn copy.

The Look magazine featured all sorts of pictures and a short story that, in part said:

Gene was making $44 a week and was 23 when he married Judith, just 18, at the Bethany Congregational Church in Cedar Rapids

Odds were 857,375 to 1 that a woman would have three sets of twins in 27 months.

On April 18, 1956, Patty Colleen at 4 pounds, 13 ounces, and Timothy Michael at 4 pounds, 11 ounces were born. They were five weeks premature. Doctors didn't know Judy was having twins until 10 hours before delivery.

On July 11, 1957, Debbie Kay at 3 pounds 15 ounces and Danny Ray at 4 pounds 5 ounces were born. Only one heartbeat was detected. Judy had gained only 6 pounds this time, compared to 50 pounds with the first delivery.

On July 25, 1958, Donald Paul at 5 pounds and Dennis Gene at 5 pounds 1 ounce were born.

With three sets of twins, Judy usually put in a 17-hour day, taking care of the kids from 6:30 a.m. to feed the youngest twins until 11:30 p.m. when everyone went to bed. Gene worked as a paint sprayer for Turner Electronics Corporation in Cedar Rapids.

In the average week, Judy fixed 168 meals, did 21 loads of laundry that included cloth diapers and sterilized 84 bottles. She refused to calculate how many dishes she washed or the diapers she changed.

“Gene and I wouldn't trade our six for anything in the world,” Judy said.

Her doctor told her she probably wouldn't have anything but multiple births, so she said there probably won't be any more children.

“Seeing the Murphy family in action is like watching a never-ending three-ring circus,” the article said.

“When the first two would cry, I'd sit down and bawl,” Judy said. “But I figured if you can't beat ‘em, join ‘em.”

She taught the kids new words by reading the newspaper to them.

“I very seldom get irritated at them,” Judy said, “But when I do, they know it.”

In their family trees, Judy had 14 sets of twins while Gene had one.

The couple was preparing to leave their two-bedroom apartment for a three-bedroom house in Marion.

“I haven't got time to feel sorry for myself,” Judy said. “I'm too busy working and thinking that I should have been a centipede.”

In the years since that story, Judy and Gene were divorced. She tended bar at the VIP Lounge in Marion and at the Eagles Club and Stop Off in Cedar Rapids before she died at age 47 in 1984. Gene now lives in Clermont, Iowa. The two oldest twins also died, Tim who was a cook in the Navy in 2003 and Patty who was a cook and tended bar in the Cedar Rapids area in 2008.

The others are scattered - Danny works in construction in Texas, Debbie is a care center nurse in Wisconsin, Dennis drives a truck in Washington State and Donnie in Cedar Rapids, washes semi-trailer tankers for the Cliff Viessman company.

Donnie remembers that the family didn't have much most of the time, that Christmas celebrations were simple. But he learned family values from his mother and remembers some of the mischieve he and his siblings got into.

One time, he says, the entire neighborhood gathered for the funeral of a parakeet in a cigar box.

Another time, the kids poured blue paint on the family dogs, Peanut and Cookie. Their worried mother called a veterinarian who laughed and said, "Just wash them off. They'll be fine."

Whenever the kids would be out to play, dad would whistle at supper time or whenever it was time to come home. "If we didn't show up . . ." Donnie laughs.

It was pretty cool to have so many kids so close together, Donnie says. It's too bad, he adds, that they don't get together more often now.

“I'm very proud of my family,” Donnie says.