Dad of first known surviving quintuplets dies

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) - Andrew Fischer was a stock clerk earning less than $100 a week in 1963 when a doctor explained why his pregnant wife's belly had grown so large: She was about to give birth to five babies, who would become the first known surviving quintuplets born in the U.S.

Fischer, whose family eventually grew to 11 children, died in a nursing home Thursday in South Dakota, according to Schriver's Memorial Mortuary and Crematory in Aberdeen. He was 89.

Fischer said he "shook" and his wife, May Ann, started to cry when an X-ray revealed the news. A few days later, on Sept. 14, 1963, their family doubled in size when she gave birth two months early to four girls and a boy.

"I don't know how, but I'm sure my wife and I will be able to take care of them, the same as the five others," he said at the time.

Media swarmed the hospital and the Fischers' modest farmhouse after the quintuplets were born. President John F. Kennedy sent a telegram to Mary Ann Fischer, and the Saturday Evening Post featured photos of the babies - Mary Ann, Mary Catherine, Mary Margaret, Mary Magdalene and James Andrew - on its cover.