Annette Dionne, the last of the famous ‘Dionne Quintuplets’ died in a suburb of Montreal on Wednesday, at the age of 91.
Dionne’s death was first reported by the New York Times. A family spokesperson, told the publication she died due to complications related to Alzheimer’s disease.
The Dionne Quints Home Museum in North Bay, Ont., says in a social media post that Annette died Christmas Eve, but did not provide further details.
“She believed it was important to maintain the Dionne Quints Museum and the history it provides for the future of all children,” the museum said in the post Friday.
“Annette was the only surviving Quints and was the last surviving sibling amongst the 14 children of the Dionne family … Rest in Peace, Annette.”
On May 28, 1934, Annette, Emilie, Yvonne, Cecile and Marie Dionne were born prematurely near Callander Ontario. The would go on to be known world wide as the Dionne quintuplets.
They became famous for being the first confirmed set of quintuplets to survive infancy. All five of them lived into adulthood.
After four months of care with their family, their custody was signed over to the Red Cross, which paid for their care and oversaw the building of a hospital built specially for them.
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In September of 1934, the girls were moved from their family farmhouse to the Dafoe Hospital and Nursery, where they were cared for by Dr. Allan Roy Dafoe, the same man who helped deliver them.
The nursery was equipped with public observation areas, barbed wire on the perimeter and on-staff police officers to protect them, because the quintuplets’s new home had become a popular tourist attraction.
It was known to the larger public as ”Quintland.”
The sisters would be brought out to the playground to be observed by visitors who came from all over, two or three times a week.
Some visitors included King George VI of England and his wife. Amelia Earhart also visited Callander just six weeks before her ill-fated flight in 1937.
They lived at the nursery until they were nine years old, in their time there, the Dionne sisters were constantly tested, studied, and examined.
Oliva Édouard Dionne, their father, ran a souvenir shop and a woolen store opposite the nursery. Eventually, Olivia Eduard began a legal began to regain custody of his children.
Visitations continued at Quintland while the girls’s father was in court. Between 1934 and 1943 when they moved out, is it estimated that 3 million people visited the girls at the nursery.
Later in life, the quintuplets became TV sensations, featuring in a number of commercials. Their life story was recreated in Hollywood movie form, three separate times.
The first of the sisters to die was Émilie. She was 20 at the time of her death in 1954.
Marie died in 1970, at age of 35.
Over the years, the sisters would put out a handful of stories and featured in documentaries of their experience, detailing a dark and uncomfortable life of being constantly on display.
In 1997, Annette, Cecile, and Yvonne claimed that their father had sexually abused them in their book Family Secrets: The Dionne Quintuplets’ Own Story.
The remaining three sisters went back and forth with the Ontario government, claiming money was stolen from their trust fund.
After lengthy negotiations, In March 1998, the Ontario government announced that it would pay the three surviving quints $4 million in compensation for the nine years they spent on display at a tourist theme park.
Three years later Yvonne died of cancer.
Cecile would live on until July of 2025, she was 91 at the time of her death on July 28th.
– With files from the Canadian Press
