This past Monday, Cécile Dionne (left) died at the age of 91. That leaves her sister Annette Dionne (right) as the sole surviving member of the Dionne quintuplets. While Annette has family members, her identical sisters were the only constant in her life.
The Dionne Quintuplets were born on May 28, 1934, in a farmhouse near Callander, Ontario. They were the first quintuplets to survived infancy. The five sisters were born prematurely, so after first being warmed in a basket by the stove, antique baby incubators were shipped in because the house had no electricity to power modern versions. Their parents, Oliva and Elzire, already had five children and were desperately poor. To prevent the five girls from being exploited, the Canadian government took custody of them, and promptly exploited them. A nursery was built to house the quints, and soon was expanded to accommodate the thousands of people who flocked to see them. Yvonne, Annette, Cécile, Émilie, and Marie were Canada's biggest tourist draw, eclipsing Niagara Falls for some time.
Their parents fought to regain custody, only achieving that when the quints were nine years old. But they never felt integrated into the family, which by then included another three children. Émilie died in 1954, Marie in 1970, and Yvonne in 2001.
-via Fark
