Yvonne Thornton talked about her family’s life story as described in her book, The Ditchdigger’s Daughters: A Black Family’s Astonishing Success Story. She is one of six daughters born to a ditchdigger from Fort Monmouth, New Jersey. They eventually formed a musical group, the Thornton Sisters Band, which became the source of the daughters' college tuition. According to the author, all six of the girls went on to have successful careers in the legal and medical fields, including Dr. Thornton who is a double-board certified specialist in obstetrics, gynecology and maternal-fetal medicine.

A segment was inserted of an audio recording her father, Donald Thornton, made on December 21, 1979.