Annette, the last of the famous Dionne Quintuplets, died on Dec. 24. She was 91. Born in Canada into a world fraught with the Depression and fascism, the girls (rare surviving quintuplets) became a worldwide craze, and were made wards of the state as a tourism hook, so they could live like little queens. Like queens, though, they lived a regimented life in the glare of publicity, gaped at like zoo animals (the Dionnes had eight other children—I’d like to have heard their story!). The quints were shipped off to the Chicago World’s Fair to be put on display, lived in a public nursery till they were nine; their images were used on numerous souvenirs and ads, and they appeared in the films The Country Doctor, Five of a Kind, and Reunion, as well as several documentaries. Understandably, they all became rather reclusive as they grew (five little Garbos!). In old age, Yvonne, Cécile, and Annette lived together in a Montreal suburb. With the death of Cécile in July, Annette became the last surviving sister.
One of the many newsreels on the quints: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yXx26hL58IA
