Annette Dion, Last of the Quintuplets, Dies at 91

Annette Dion, the last of the five-figure sisters who became a tourist attraction in their childhood, has died in Canada. She was 91 years old and died in hospital from complications caused by Alzheimer’s disease, the New York Times reported, citing a family representative.

Sisters Marie, Emily, Cecil, Annette and Yvonne were born in a farmhouse in the town of North Bay on May 28, 1934, and became famous as one of the first quintuplets to survive infancy. A few months after their birth,the rights to raise the girls were transferred to the Red Cross to protect them from exploitation,but the sisters were later taken into the care of the government and a tourism industry was created around them.

Until the age of nine,the girls lived in a mansion behind a high fence and only went out for a walk a few times a day so that tourists could watch them. one of their guardians was the country doctor Allan Roy Defoe, who took their mother’s birth and profited from their fame. The father and mother of the five-figures regained their parental rights only after his death in 1943.

Together with their parents, five-figure sisters and other children, there were 13 people in the family. The sisters later said that after being reunited with their family, thay felt lost and surrounded by strangers. Three of the five sisters also accused their father of sexual abuse.

After coming of age, the Dion sisters left their hometown and did not keep in touch with other family members. Emily went to a convent and died at the age of 20, followed by Marie at 36, Yvonne at 67 and Cecil six months before Annette.