Brokaw Hospital maternity nurses (left to right) Mary Heinzel and Clara Keller, along with maternity supervisor Ruth Munson, are seen here keeping the Wheeler triplets on their strict feeding schedule—one ounce of milk every two hours. In an age well before infertility treatments, triplets were extremely rare! Parents Don and Christa Wheeler of the DeWitt County community of Farmer City became local Depression-era celebrities with their two baby boys and baby girl.John, Geraldine, and Lester (we don’t know who’s who in this photo!) were born May 30, so they were but a few days old at the time of this photo. “The babies have a perfectly normal clear pink skin, blue eyes and dark hair,” reported The Pantagraph, “and Thursday [June 4] they were able to give a lusty cry if disturbed.”
