Dr. Jeanette Thornton MD is the second of five female siblings. During the 1960’s and 1970’s, she was lead guitarist and vocalist with “The Thornton Sisters”, an all-girl jazz and R&B family band consisting of her four sisters and her mother. During that time the Thornton Sisters toured colleges and universities. They even managed to win 1st place six (6) times at the famed Apollo Theater’s “Amateur Night at the Apollo”, securing a one week engagement at the Apollo Theater, a dream that her mother had had since she was a young dancer but never achieved. Her father and band manager, Donald Thornton, dreamed of having a son and his dream was never actualized, so he insisted that his five daughters not only become his sons but also become medical doctors. At that time, medicine was a European American, male-dominated occupation but it guaranteed the kind of prestige and financial security that would allow his daughters to successfully fight poverty, racism and sexism… and win. Unfortunately he was going to have some problems convincing his second daughter who was stubborn, insightful, and used to doing things her own way. Dr. Jeanette Thornton finally became a medical doctor and her story is dramatized in the made-for-television movie, “The Ditch Digger’s Daughters”.
Today, Dr. Thornton is an Addiction Psychiatrist who earned her medical degree from Boston University School of Medicine and completed her internship and residency in Family Medicine and Psychiatry. Also, she has a master’s degree and a doctoral degree in Psychology. She is the author of “Prescriptive Cuisine” and co-author of another book with her youngest sister, Rita, entitled “A Suitcase Full of Dreams”.
Dr. Thornton is board certified in Psychiatric Medicine and Addiction Psychiatry. She has produced and directed two local informational talkshows for television entitled “Breakfast At Our Place” and “Talk To Me”. For the past 25 years she has maintained an active private practice in Addiction Psychiatry and Psychiatric Medicine in Albany, New York with her husband, Emile A. Powe, MD, an Internist and Gastroenterologist. In keeping with the old adage, “once an entertainer, always an entertainer”, she is developing, producing and hosting another informational talk show for television entitled, “Jeanette Thornton MD” as well as an informational website. She is working on her third book dealing with Food Addiction Obesity (FAO).