Cecile Dionne learned to say the word “doctor” before she did the word “mother.” As one of the Dionne girls — the first set of quintuplets to survive infancy, born 75 years ago May 28 — Cecile spent her first nine years under medical care in “Quintland,” a hospital that essentially doubled as a government-run theme park. Born in Ontario to a pair of devout Catholics , the Dionne quintuplets were an immediate media sensation, a Depression-era precursor to today’s Octomoms and Jon and Kates. Two months premature, weighing about two pounds each, Cecile, Annette, Yvonne, Marie, and Emilie were quickly made wards of the state by authorities who feared that their father would exploit them for his own financial benefit
