Sisters Colleen Cunningham, left, and J’aime Morgaine, right, after meeting each other for the first time at Harry Reid International Airport in Las Vegas. Photo courtesy J’aime Morgaine
KINGMAN – Two sisters who never knew each other until recently finally had the chance to meet face-to-face.
Kingman resident J’aime Morgaine, 61, and Colleen Cunningham, 60, of Cape Cod, Massachusetts, met in person for the first time in six decades when Cunningham flew to Arizona from Cape Cod to celebrate Morgaine’s 61st birthday in May.
“Colleen flew out from Cape Cod so we could celebrate my birthday together for the first time,” Morgaine said.
The meeting was memorable for both women.
“I picked up Colleen at the Harry Reid Airport in Las Vegas. We were on the phone trying to find each other. She saw me first,” said Morgaine. “She was on the next flight up, and she walked down the stairs in grand fashion, like she was a movie starlet from the 20s.”
“When I first met/saw J’aime, I could see the resemblance,” Cunningham said. “We laughed and then hugged. It was a great moment.”
The women talked non-stop, mostly still piecing things together.
“It was so lovely to hug her. She was finally real, not just an online DNA test,” Morgaine said. “We made our way out to the car and drove off to our week’s adventure.”
There were a lot of missing pieces and it was time to fill them in.
“All the main players in this story of shenanigans have passed,” Morgaine said. “So, we decided that we could just create whatever story we wanted out of the pieces we knew.”
This is how those shenanigans came to light.
The discovery started with an Ancestry.com DNA test Morgaine took to prove to her youngest brother, Scott, and other brother, Brandon, that they all had the same dad, a man named Eddie Cunningham.
They were about to find out that wasn’t exactly the case.
Morgaine and Brandon thought a man named Wally Bevis was their biological father. Scott was unsure.
“Scott has spent his whole life uncertain if Wally was his real father,” Morgaine said. “But then Scott and I turned out to be half-siblings, and I had another half- sibling named Colleen Cunningham.”
It turns out that Eddie is Morgaine’s biological father while Bevis is Scott and Brandon’s biological father.
There are some interesting twists in the family history.
“It’s a great story of crazy shenanigans in the 60s,” Morgaine said.
The women have different mothers but have the same biological father. Wally Bevis is the father on Morgaine’s birth certificate, but she and Colleen’s DNA father is a man named Eddie Cunningham, a steel guitar player in a country and western band where Wally also played guitar. Morgaine’s mother, Dianne Rugg, would also occasionally sing with the band.
Colleen’s mother is a woman named Rita (Cunningham).
“They probably knew each other,” Morgaine said. “Whether they liked each other is another story.”
The sisters were curious to learn about each other’s relations within the family.
“My first reaction was that perhaps (Morgaine) was an aunt on my father’s side. But then it dawned on me that she was a sister, not an aunt,” Cunningham said. “Even better.”
The puzzle was slowly coming together.
“I knew immediately that (Cunningham) was my sister because I was already aware that my mom hung out at the Casa Loma bar in East Bridgewater, Massachusetts bar where both Wally and Eddie were part of the same country western band, and she would sometimes sing with them,” Morgaine said. “I was stunned.”
Morgaine and Cunningham connected about a year and a half ago and began putting things together.
“I contacted Colleen through Facebook, but she didn’t respond right away,” Morgaine said. “Once she did, we started chatting with questions and trying to piece everything together.”
She also contacted Cunningham’s siblings (also Morgaine’s half-siblings), but the ongoing engagement was only from Colleen.
Morgaine was born May 28, 1963. Colleen was born 10 1/2 months later on March 17, 1964. If they were born from the same mother, they’d be Irish Twins – siblings born within 12 months from the same mother. They still consider themselves Irish Twins in a unique way.
“We never knew about each other. DNA testing is revealing everyone’s dirty little secrets,” said Morgaine. “I also feel most connected with Colleen because it is our lives that are directly connected by this twist of DNA fate.”
This experience has a few moving parts.
“For me, it’s just trying to learn about the father I never knew,” Morgaine said. “But for Colleen, I think it’s more about trying to make sense of pieces that don’t fit with the father (Eddie) she’s always known.”
The sisters have finally met face-to-face and sorted out the family lineage.
Now it was time for celebration.
Cunningham flew out the week of May 27-31 to meet in person. Now that they had the family tree figured out, it was time to party and tour parts of Mohave County and surrounding areas.
The sisters spent some time in the Hualapai Mountains with Morgaine’s friend Patty and sister-in-law Jackie. They also spent an afternoon in Lake Havasu visiting London Bridge. On Memorial Day, friend Patty Coon, Cunningham, and Morgaine drove out to Lake Mead and talked about Arizona’s dire water situation then called it a day around dusk.
“Then we watched the sunset from the Boathouse Café and Grill (in Meadview) where Colleen learned the phrase ‘When the cliffs turn pink, it’s time to drink’,” Morgaine said.
They also took a trip to Oatman with Morgaine’s brother, Brandon.
“I wanted Colleen to get to know my life, not just me,” Morgaine said. “Brandon and Colleen are not biologically related, but Brandon made it clear that if she is my sister, then she is his sister.”
The women got a few laughs out of the experience.
Cunningham had planned a surprise birthday cake for Morgaine’s birthday dinner. She had brought in a cake from Victoria’s Sugar Shack earlier in the day.
“Which is a whole comic story in itself, because she was buying the cake as I was on my way to Victoria’s Sugar Shack to buy cupcakes to bring to my birthday dinner,” Morgaine said. “Our cake and cupcakes were the exact same design.”
The Sugar Shack crowd was very observant.
“Colleen had the whole place laughing, and when I came in after Colleen had literally just left, everyone in the place knew that I was Colleen’s sister,” said Morgaine. “I couldn’t figure out why it felt like everyone was looking at me. So, that was my wonderful birthday with Colleen.”
The ladies held Morgaine’s birthday celebration at Vito’s Italian Cuisine later that Tuesday (May 28).
On Cunningham’s last night in Arizona, the women celebrated their lives with a sunset riverboat cruise out of Laughlin.
“It was a wonderful week, made all the more fun because my friend Patty shared in the experience, too,” said Morgaine.
The Other Siblings
Morgaine has two brothers: Scott Bevis, who lives in Oklahoma, and Brandon Bevis who resides in Kingman just around the corner from Morgaine.
Cunningham has two younger siblings: a 58-year-old brother and a 51-year-old sister with plenty of nieces and nephews joining the family.
“We have a great relationship,” Cunningham said.
Neither of the sisters ever had children.
The parents have all died with their secrets.
Wally died in 2021 and Dianne in 1986. Morgaine isn’t sure when Cunningham passed, but said it was quite a while ago.
“It’s hard for me,” Morgaine said. “There’s no one left of the ‘shenanigan players’ who can answer questions.”
The family lineage could’ve been different.
“If our dad (Eddie) had chosen to make it work with my mom, Colleen would have never been born,” Morgaine said. “That’s why she flew out to celebrate my birthday because our birthdays are the twists of fate that wrap around this.”
The Importance of Genetic History
Eddie was an Army veteran, which is the same branch Morgaine served as a multichannel communications operator (her unit installed telephones) from 1985 to 1988.
“He is also the likely source of where I got my genetic mutation that predisposes me to the three cancers I’ve already had,” said Morgaine. “He died from colon cancer. His father died from colon cancer as did his father’s brother.”
Morgaine can’t stress enough the need to check family genetic history.
“These are the reasons why knowing who our DNA family is is so important,” Morgaine said. “DNA is what carries our medical history.”
Morgaine hopes this story inspires people to look into their genetic family history, not just genealogy history.
“There’s nothing that replaces that information,” Morgaine said. “People should look into that history and not be afraid to find out what’s in it.”
Staying Connected
The meeting was an amazing experience for the sisters. They plan to stay in touch and meet more often.
“Having found J’aime through DNA testing was a total surprise,” Cunningham said. “Once we met, I was again reminded of how much I love surprises. It was the best thing ever.”
Morgaine is planning to head to the East Coast in the near future to reciprocate the experience.
“I will definitely spend time with her and get to know her life in Cape Cod,” she said. “Hopefully next summer I’ll be able to travel to Nova Scotia to bury my step-dad’s ashes next to my mom.”
“I’m enjoying the ride,” Cunningham said. “I had such a wonderful time while in Arizona. I look forward to having her visit me on Cape Cod.”
Aaron Ricca
