[2] Her father, a ditchdigger, and a veteran of World War II, had a dream for each of his six children, all African-American girls, to become doctors.

[3] The struggle and story of this journey in spite of economic, racial and gender-based boundaries later became the subject of The Ditchdigger's Daughters.

[4] The Ditchdigger's Daughters was critically acclaimed, translated into 19 languages and was turned into a television movie produced by the Family Channel in 1997, for which Kimberly Elise won Best Supporting Actress at the 1997 CableACE Awards.

[9] Her second memoir, Something to Prove: A Daughter's Journey to Fulfill a Father's Legacy, was released in December 2010 and was named the Grand Prize Winner of the 2011 New York Book Festival.

In its 250th year, Thornton was honored in 2017 with the Virginia Kneeland Frantz award for Distinguished Women in Medicine——the highest recognition for an alumna of Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons.