Time Machine: Twins in triplicate for three Marion families

Twin clubs began springing up in Eastern Iowa in the 1950s and '60s.

The first to organize was the Hawkeye Twin Club in Iowa City on Oct. 28, 1955. LaVelda and LaVona Rowe started the organization when they were attending the University of Iowa. By 1959, the club was statewide and open to anyone with a twin. The mailing list grew to 800 sets of twins in less than five years.

The second group was the Cedar Rapids chapter of Mothers of Twins. Mrs. Charles L. Wisehart of Cedar Rapids saw an ad in The Gazette's Parade magazine about the national organization. She and Mrs. William Ellsworth became the first two members of the local club. They began contacting mothers of twins they knew and soon had 30 members. The first meeting was held in March 1959. The club was the second Mothers of Twins to organize in Iowa, after the Urbandale club.

The Iowa Mothers of Twins organization changed its name to Mothers of Multiples in 2001, and many area clubs, including Marion, followed suit.

Marion mothers were included in the Cedar Rapids club until 1963, when Marion Mothers of Twins Club was formed. Its early membership included a feature not found in any other twins club. Marion's Mothers of Twins had two mothers who each had had three sets of twins. And then another member entered that exclusive category seven years later.

The Murphys

Judith Murphy was 20 years old when she gave birth to her third consecutive set of twins, Dennis Gene and Donald Paul, on July 25, 1958. All of the Murphy twins were born within a span of 27 months.

Their father, Eugene 'Gene” Murphy, 26, was on a two-week vacation from his job as a painter at Turner Electronics Co. when his wife went into labor. He spent the time caring for Patty Colleen and Timothy Michael, born April 18, 1956, and Debbie Kay and Danny Ray, born July 11, 1957.

According to the attending physician, only one woman in 512,000 will have three sets of twins. But the Murphys made medical history because their sets of twins were born consecutively, and all survived.

By the time the newest twins arrived home Aug. 8, letters and clippings from all over the country and the world had arrived at the Murphy home on Third Avenue SW.

When asked how it felt to be the mother of three sets of twins, Judith said, 'I don't know. I've never been the mother of anything else.”

Judith Murphy joined the Marion Mothers of Twins when she and her family moved to Marion in the fall of 1958, shortly after the birth of the third set of twins.

The Behrens

Arlene and Karl Behrens brought home their twin girls, Donna Lisa and Lori Diane, born Dec. 12, 1960, to a joyous reception from their seven other children: twins Connie and Kathy, 13; Kay 12; twins John and Tom, 10; Chuck, 8; and Pamela, 6. The Behrens had farmed northwest of Toddville for 14 years.

The new babies' names were a compromise, 8-year-old Chuck told The Gazette reporter. The boys, he said, 'wanted Donna and Diane and the girls wanted Lori and Lisa.” Their parents decided to use all four names for the newborn twins.

Asked how they felt about being twins, Connie and Kathy said, 'When you're twins, you don't want it, but the other kids (in school) are envious. You always squabble over clothes, and when one's only a few minutes older than the other, it's hard to decide who's boss.”

As for the boys, Arlene added, 'They actually can't tell their clothes apart, but they argue about them anyway.”

Karl Behrens died in a car accident when the youngest twins were 3. Arlene was forced to sell the farm's livestock, machinery and implements. While the family stayed on the farmstead, they rented out most of their 176 acres.

A teacher before her marriage, Arlene worked as a teacher's aide at the Toddville school before becoming the school secretary a few years later.

Arlene also was a member of the Marion Mothers of Twins. She married again in 1974 to Marvin Titler.

the McAreavys

Lola McAreavy was already a member of the Marion Mothers of Twins in 1963. She solidified her club credentials when she and husband, John, became the third family in Marion to have three sets of twins. Stephanie and Stephen were born Feb. 17, 1970, joining Michele and Michael, age 7, and Andrea and Andrew, age 4 1/2. The McAreavys' oldest children were brothers Jordan, 9, and Bradley, 8.

The Gazette revisited the McAreavy family in December 1982 for a holiday story. By then, Jordan and Bradley were 22 and 21, respectively. Michael and Michele were 20, Andrew and Andrea were 17 and Stephen was 12. Stephanie had died as a toddler when she was struck by a vehicle.

John McAreavy had been a professional baseball player and was good enough at basketball to tour with the Harlem Globetrotters. He encouraged his children to play sports, and, as a result, the family's Marion home was filled with the children's sports awards. When asked how difficult it might have been to grown up in such a large family, there was no immediate response.

Then Bradley said, 'What about the time Michele beat up Mike?”

Michele explained that her twin had been in training and wanted to test the results. He asked Michele to give him her best shot. She did. But her punch to Michael's stomach was 'a bit too much.”