Thornton recounted a pivotal moment from her youth when her father sat his daughters down and made the case for education over entertainment. The Thornton Sisters had been a successful all-girl rhythm-and-blues band, winning six consecutive Amateur Night competitions at the Apollo Theatre and signing recording contracts with Roulette and Atlantic Records. The girls were ready to chase fame and fortune. But their father, Donald Thornton — a ditchdigger by trade and a visionary by nature — told them to imagine themselves at fifty or sixty, with gray hair and arthritic fingers, trying to blow a saxophone on stage. Then he painted the alternative: a doctor with knowledge and skill that people need, regardless of prejudice. Every one of the Thornton sisters went on to become a professional — physicians, a dentist, a lawyer, a court stenographer — proving their father's wisdom spectacularly right.