'We were a show'
Mar. 9—HIGH POINT — The late Sara Davis Welborn, the firstborn of High Point's much-celebrated "Davis triplets," never shied away from the attention she and her two nearest siblings received for their unusual entry into the world.
She never grew weary of the flashbulbs popping in their faces or the curiosity-seekers popping questions. Never lamented the fact that no matter what she did in her own life, her identity was forever inextricably linked to the brother and sister born with her in 1938, the first triplets ever delivered at High Point's old Burris Memorial Hospital.
No, she actually embraced her triplet status, swaddling herself in it like a newborn in a blanket.
"We were a show," she often told family and friends — and even strangers and newspaper reporters — describing the triplets' fishbowl existence when they were young.
"She was so proud of it," recalls Welborn's daughter, Delane Buck, who lives in Lake Mary, Florida. "She would tell people, 'I'm a triplet,' all the time."
Even in the final months of Welborn's life, as her health deteriorated and a rotating roster of hospice workers looked after her, each new caregiver would hear the same question: "Did you know I'm a triplet?"
So when Welborn — the last surviving Davis triplet — died Monday at age 83 following a battle against brain cancer, it seemed only fitting that her family would agree to tell her story one last time.
"She would've loved it," Buck says.
The Davis triplets — Sara Lane, Martha Zane and Thomas Rhyne — were born on Aug. 28, 1938, to Jesse and Annie Davis, who lived on a Kernersville farm just outside the High Point city limits.
In those days, because doctors didn't have sonograms available, twins and triplets arrived as total surprises to both parents and medical personnel. According to family lore, after Dr. W.K. McCain delivered Sara, he calmly said, "There's another one," and out came Tom. Shortly after that, he repeated, "There's another one," and out came Martha.
They weighed about 5 pounds each, though Martha was about half a pound smaller, and they were healthy.
Sadly, the children's mother died only five days after their birth. Their widowed father, having two other children and a farm to tend, turned to Evie Thornton, the sweet, nurturing proprietor of Mama Thornton's Baby Boarding House in High Point.
Extended family members had offered to help raise the triplets in their respective homes, but Jesse didn't want the newborns separated, so he took them to the boarding house in a big wicker basket. The triplets lived with Mama Thornton for five years before returning to their father's farm, joining older siblings Paul and Betty.
According to Buck and her brother, Darrell Welborn of High Point, their mother always spoke positively of her childhood, harboring a special place in her heart for Mama Thornton but also relishing life with her father on the farm. She often shared some of her fondest memories: Playing ball with a tied-up tow sack. Sharing a bicycle with her two fellow triplets. Helping her father with chores on the farm. Playing with the family dog, Groucho.
Although triplets were not unheard of — even in 1938, before the onset of fertility drugs — the Davis triplets were a bit of a novelty. The High Point Enterprise published a photo of the triplets before they were a month old — plastering them on the front page of the local news section, above the fold — and at other times as they grew. The Enterprise even published stories as the triplets celebrated milestones such as their 50th and 60th birthdays.
According to Sara Welborn's children, the triplets remained close throughout their lives. They all raised their families on parcels of the Davis family land, living on the same road their entire lives, and getting together often for family celebrations.
An anecdote about the triplets' 70th birthday party reveals just how close the three were.
"Martha was sick and could not come to the party," recalls Lynn Welborn, Sara's daughter-in-law. "Tom refused to be in a birthday picture with just Sara and not Martha. He would not be in a triplet picture with only two of them. They were very, very close."
Tom and Martha died in 2014, within five months of each other, leaving only Sara.
"It's not lost on us that Sara was the first of the three to enter the world and the last of the three to leave the world," Lynn Welborn says. "And she was the strongest of the three at birth."
Sara was laid to rest Thursday in the Abbotts Creek Missionary Baptist Church Cemetery, signaling an end to the show she was so proud to be a part of.
Or does it?
Family members believe Sara is finally reunited with all of her loved ones: Jesse, her father. Annie, the mother she never knew. Mama Thornton. Her late husband, Jimmy Welborn. Her two older siblings, Paul and Betty. And, of course, her fellow triplets, Tom and Martha.
Maybe the curtain hasn't fallen on the show after all. Maybe it's just moved to a new venue.
jtomlin@hpenews.com — 336-888-3579
jtomlin@hpenews.com — 336-888-3579
