MONTREAL — Yvonne Dionne, one of three remaining Dionne quintuplets, died Saturday of cancer, her family said in a statement. She was 67.
The 1934 birth of Yvonne and her four identical sisters to an impoverished couple in the small town of Callander, Ontario, was hailed as a medical miracle. At the time, they were the only known quintuplets to survive more than a few days.
When the Ontario provincial government deemed the Dionne parents unfit to care for their five girls, they were put in a specially built hospital — called Quintland — where they became a money-making tourist attraction during the lean Depression years. More than 5 million tourists viewed the girls there through one-way glass.
The three surviving Dionne quints eventually sued the Ontario government for separating them from their family and putting them on display. They received a $2.8 million settlement from the province.
One sister, Emilie, died in 1954; another, Marie, died in 1970.
Yvonne is survived by two of the quintuplets, Annette and Cecile.
Funeral arrangements were not immediately known.
