KEYS QUADRUPLETS

 

Across the Fence

 

By Arvord Abernethy

 

August 7, 1980

 

Mrs. Curtis Humphries, Estelle, recently handed me a clipping from the Waco paper that had been printed the week before. At the top was a picture of the Keys Quadruplets and Pat Neff, Baylor’s president, made while the quads were students at Baylor from 1933 to their graduation in 1937. They are pictured as they were about to board a train for a goodwill trip for Baylor. Those were depression days, so the oddity of the quads made great publicity for their college. “Governor” Neff could easily be recognized by that ever present high collar and string bow tie.

 

Leota, one of the quads, passed away ten years ago, and Mona has had Parkinson’s disease for seven years, so the girls have been to Washington D. C. where they have been the subject of a National Institute of Health research project to determine if there is a hereditary basis for the disease.

 

The Humphries lived in Waco when the quads were in school there, so I got to see them on many occasions.

 

Now this part through here is just personal, so you can skip reading down for several lines. I grew up at Hollis , Oklahoma where the Keys girls were born, so I have known them all their lives. Their father, Flake Keys, was superintendent of the Sunday School where we attended and all the Keys family was very faithful in attendance.

 

I worked one year at Mr. Keys’ hardware and furniture store when the quads were ten years old and they would come to the store some and play around. The Allan Heards, now of Tulia, had just married and moved to Hollis, so we sold them some furniture. On the last delivery trip, Mr. Keys thought that he should see if the girls had put anything in the drawers as they often did. His eyesight was poor, so when he saw some objects in a drawer, he put them in his pocket, thinking them to be some jewelry out of Cracker Jacks the girls had put in there. Pretty soon Mrs. Heard came to the store greatly disturbed yet hesitant to say anything that would sound like an accusation. She asked Mr. Keys if he had seen anything of some rings that she had placed in a drawer; one can never imagine how small he felt when he reached into his pocket and pulled out what he thought to be cheap jewelry to find that they were Mrs. Heard’s diamonds.

 

I do not have the facts, but I know of no other quadruplets that have graduated from college or lived as long as these have. The remaining ones, Roberta, Mary and Mona are now 65 years of age.

 

It is good to Curtis Humphries out now without having to wear his halo which he wore after breaking that neck bone. We all like to put off wearing that halo and a crown until a little later.