Last of the Famous Dionne Quintuplets Dies in Canada

Annette Dionne, the last of the famous quintuplets, has died in Canada. Their lives were far from happy. The sisters were taken from their parents and placed under the full guardianship of the state, and then turned into a tourist attraction.

The Mother Was Hysterical

On May 28, 1934, Canadian woman Elzire Dion gave birth to quintuplets at home under the care of Dr. Allan Roy Dafoe. By that time, she was already the mother of five children. However, neither the woman nor her doctor suspected that Elzire would give birth to multiples.

The sisters were born prematurely and weighed just over six kilograms in total. The smallest weighed 840 grams, and the largest — 1.13 kilograms.

The Dionne sisters are the first recorded case in history of identical quintuplets surviving infancy. This was largely due to the skilled actions of Dr. Allan Roy Dafoe, for whom the birth was also a surprise. Initially, he diagnosed Elzire with a «fetal abnormality.»

Elzire reacted to the birth of the five girls with hysteria.

«What will I do with all these babies?» the mother screamed.

She was able to recover only two hours after the shock.

Torn From the Family

The birth of the girls quickly became a sensation. After the birth, the father«s brother, Oliva Dion, asked the editor of a local newspaper to publish an announcement about the quintuplets» birth.

Soon, dozens of reporters and photographers descended on the family farm. The news spread across North America. The Dions began receiving aid, with people sending food and clothing. Some gave helpful advice, among which were very strange ones: parents were advised to give the infants small doses of whiskey to prevent diarrhea.

However, the family faced not only help but also ridicule. Some mocked the Dion couple for having so many children.

Elzire and Oliva, who already had five children, could not cope with this difficult situation. They decided to transfer guardianship of the girls to the Red Cross for two years. However, a few months later, the authorities of the province of Ontario stripped the couple of their parental rights.

The Children«s Zoo

After that, the quintuplets were placed under the full guardianship of the state. In 1935, the government of the province of Ontario passed a special law that made them «wards of the crown» until they turned 18.

The girls lived in a separate house built opposite the parental farm. This house gradually turned into a veritable children«s zoo.

There was an open playground on the property. It was specially designed so that the sisters would not notice the numerous tourists who watched them with interest. Every day, about three thousand people watched the girls. And between 1936 and 1943, the observation gallery was visited by three million people.

«It»s exhausting to be under constant observation. It was exploitation. We are not animals,« Annette said during her lifetime.

The quintuplets were cared for by three nurses and two maids. Special attention was paid to their safety: three police officers watched them around the clock.

Interestingly, each of the sisters had her own unique color and symbol, which were used to mark everything that belonged to her. Annette was associated with the color red and a maple leaf, Cécile with green and a turkey, Émilie with white and a tulip, Marie with blue and a teddy bear, and Yvonne with pink and a bluebird.

Return to the Family

For nine long years, Oliva and Elzire Dion tried to regain custody of their children. In 1943, they finally succeeded.

But this reunion did not bring them happiness. Having become wealthy, the family changed dramatically. The large sums of money negatively affected the parents« behavior, and they began to quarrel frequently with the children. And the other brothers and sisters in the family did not accept the girls.

Appearances in Advertising and Film

When the quintuplets grew older, they began to be invited to participate in advertising campaigns, and the parents approved because the money from the shoots flowed into their pockets. The girls appeared in advertisements for ketchup, oatmeal, candy, and ice cream.

The twins also appeared in three Hollywood films based on their real lives.

«We were not perceived as children — rather, as slaves or servants,» the sisters recalled.

Life After Fame

When the Dion sisters turned 16, the family«s financial well-being sharply declined. Then the parents decided they could no longer take care of them. They sent the girls to a boarding school, where they spent two years.

After graduation, they left their hometown for Quebec and stopped communicating with the family, which, in their opinion, had used them. By the age of 18, Yvonne, Annette, Cécile, Émilie, and Marie realized what had happened and decided that their only true family was each other.

Three of the sisters married and had children: Marie had two daughters, Annette had three sons. Cécile had five children, including a set of twins.

Émilie became a nun and died at the age of twenty. Yvonne graduated from nursing school, took up sculpture, and later worked as a librarian. She died of cancer. Marie died in 1970 from a burst blood clot in her brain.

Annette and Cécile were left as a pair. They moved to the Montreal suburb of Saint-Bruno-de-Montarville and began living together. In 1998, the sisters filed a lawsuit against the provincial government, accusing it of exploitation during their childhood, and won the case, receiving compensation of four million Canadian dollars.

The two remaining Dionnes promised each other never to part and never to trust anyone in this world of one-way glass that turns life into an elite zoo. They almost kept that promise, had it not been for the sudden death of Cécile, who died six months before Annette, writes The New York Times.