Victory for Papa

When his daughters were born, he ran dazedly away to hide, crying: "A man like me should be kept in jail." As any father would, he made a scene when control of his new daughters was taken from his hands, given to a Government-appointed board of guardians. It was another affront to his paternal dignity when the girls were kept in aseptic isolation in a fancy hospital-home of their own. For almost ten years Oliva Dionne had nursed a wounded pride. Last week he won a great victory.

In Ontario's Legislature last week, Attorney General Leslie Blackwell introduced a bill, certain of passage, which will make Papa Dionne sole guardian of his wealthy ($50,000 a year income, plus a six-figure reserve), renowned Quintuplets.* Ontario courts henceforth will supervise only their contracts (pictures, soap, etc.). Otherwise, from July 1 on, Oliva Dionne will have full authority over all his children.

In an $80,000 stucco-and-stone mansion, built with Quint profits near Callander, he will live with the healthy, chubby, stolid Quints, Mama Elzire, the less famed Dionnes--Ernest (19), Rose (17), Therese (15), Daniel (13), Pauline (11), Oliva Jr. (8), Victor (5).

Oliva Dionne has changed in the past decade. Before Marie Reine Alma, Emilie Marie Jeanne, Cecile Marie Emilda, Annette Lilianne Marie and Yvonne Edouilda Marie were born, ten years ago next May 28, he was a shy, thin, weather-beaten, unlettered farmer grubbing a living for his brood from 200 unproductive acres near Callander, Ont. He still farms the same soil (hay, oats, cattle), but only in a supervisory way. He wears neat business suits, has filled out, looks more urban than rustic. He is assertive now, aware of his responsibilities, no longer thrown off balance by publicity and whoop-de-do.

When Quint Guardian J. A. Valin, a judge who is now 86, recently resigned, the Province re-examined the guardianship setup. Its decision: unnecessary "intervention in [the Dionnes'] affairs should not persist." A contributory factor: public opinion has turned more & more toward Oliva Dionne ever since the late Dr. Allan Roy Dafoe, also a Quint guardian, was photographed in 1939 in New York City wearing a pink mortarboard and a sign reading: "Doctor of Litters."

* For news of other quintuplets, see p. 32.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.