The Dionne Quintuplets

Born on this date, May 28, in 1934 were the first ever recorded identical quintuplets and first ever quintuplets known to have survived infancy. The Dionne Quintuplets were born two months premature to Oliva-Edouard (father) and Elzire (mother) Dionne, a French-speaking farming couple in one of the Canadian territories. Oliva and Elzire were married in 1925 and already had five other children, two boys and three girls. A sixth child had died of pneumonia shortly after birth. After the quintuplets were born, the Dionnes had three more children, all boys.

During her pregnancy, Elzire, twenty-four at the time, had suspected that she was carrying twins, but the possibility of quintuplets never crossed her mind. After all, this was well before the advent of fertility drugs and in vitro fertilization (IVF), and the odds against having naturally occurring identical quintuplets were astronomical. In addition, she reported having had cramps in her third month and having passed a ‘strange object’ which may have been a sixth fetus.

The first IVF baby born in the world was on July 25, 1978, forty-four years after the birth of the Dionne quintuplets.

The quints, all girls, weighed a total of 13 pounds, 6 ounces, with their individual weights ranging from 1 pound, 8½ ounces to 2 pounds, 8 ounces. The girls were named, in order of their birth, Yvonne, Annette, Cecile, Emilie, and Marie. Emilie died at age 20, Marie died at age 36, and Yvonne died at age 67. Only Annette and Cecile survive today, in 2024, at age 90.

Three of the quints, Marie, Annette, and Cecile, married and had children of their own. Emilie became a nun while Yvonne became a librarian after having finished nursing school.

It is probably a gross understatement to say that the quintuplets were not well treated. Within days of their birth, Oliva was approached about putting the girls on display for the world to see. Before their first birthday, the girls were made Wards of the Crown and were removed from their parents’ custody. They were constantly tested, examined, and studied and were kept on a very strict schedule for all of their activities. They were put on constant display, exploited commercially, and endured physical, emotional, and psychological abuse.

The quintuplets left the family home when they turned eighteen and had little contact with their parents and their other siblings thereafter. Overall, it is not a pretty picture. You can read more details about their lives in the links below.

You might be wondering why the Dionne Quintuplets are of any special interest to me. Well, I was born on May 28, 1935, exactly one year after the birth of the Dionnes. That will probably be my only claim to fame in this life.

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