CONSISTENT STORK BLESSES LOCAL NISWONGER FAMILY

Talk about a consistent stork.

Today is David Niswonger's 41st birthday. His sister, Mary Dee Denning, is celebrating her 39th, and their kid brother, John Niswonger of Gordonville turns 34 today.

The three children of O.D. and Marie Niswonger of Cape Girardeau all were born Feb. 25 in 1951, 1953, and 1958. But their parents say the birth dates weren't planned.

"It just worked out that way," said Niswonger, the administrator at Southeast Missouri Hospital in Cape Girardeau until he retired more than a year ago. "We weren't aiming to do this at all."

Marie Niswonger said David, now of St. Louis, was born while her husband attended graduate school at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Denning, who moved with her family last fall to the Chicago, Ill. area from Houston, Texas, was born while the couple lived in Poplar Bluff, she said.

"We thought we'd have some more children and we couldn't believe Mary Dee was born on the 25th. I said, `No more of that,' and that's what I got," she said. "If you really wanted it, it wouldn't happen."

In the early years, she said, the children's birthday parties were held separately. John's party would be held in the morning before school and Mary Dee's was after school.

As the children got older, though, the birthday parties were held together. "We'd sing three happy birthday songs," she said.

David Niswonger said Monday that he always felt it was "neat" that his birthday fell on the same day as his brother's and sister's. He works as system manager for Cencom Cable Television's St. Louis County cable operations.

"It made the birthday a very special family event," he said. "I've never met anybody who's had birthdays like that. You tell people about it and they think, `You're twins,' and you say, `No, we're not.'"

But his sister, a registered nurse, looked differently at the coincidence. Denning said that while growing up, she didn't think the coincidence was that great because Feb. 25 wasn't "her special day." She said she never bought birthday presents for her brothers.

"I don't think I ever gave my brothers a gift until I was much older because it was my birthday," she said Monday. "It wasn't really until I got older that I realized there was some uniqueness to the whole thing.

"It is a little unusual," she said, adding that she's never met anyone in the same situation.

"And everyone wants to know, `how does it happen? Was it planned?' and `Did (your) mother have a Caesarean section.' No, she didn't."

Denning said the birthday cakes baked by her grandmother, Alma Niswonger, are what really made the day special.

She said her grandmother would bake each child a different, unique cake. One year, Denning said, she got a treasure chest cake with gold-covered chocolate coins inside. Other years she got doll cakes.

John Niswonger, who works at Cape Insurance Co., was out of town Monday and couldn't be reached.

Denning said she and her siblings get together in Cape Girardeau in observance of their birthdays at least once every three years.

O.D. Niswonger's hobby adds a peculiar twist to the coincidence. He's an amateur horticulturist and geneticist, who has introduced about 100 varieties of irises that now grow around the world in places like Australia, New Zealand, Germany, Russia, Czechoslovakia, and France.

He's also hybridized plants like nut trees, day lilies, and daffodils, he said.

"The interesting thing is genetics has been one of my interests," he said, "but this is a part of genetics that I never planned on."