1956 - Marie Locks Flower Shop Through Personal Reasons

Published by The Sault Star in Sault St. Marie, Ontario, Canada on December 27, 1956.

Picture not included in original article. Taken for Salon Émilie's opening in May 1956.

MONTREAL (CP) -- Marie Dionne, one of the four surviving Dionne quintuplets, closed her Pine Avenue flower shop Wednesday for what a friend described as personal reasons.

The door to the basement shop, named Salon Émilie after the late Émilie Dionne who died in 1954, was locked and the window shades drawn at 1 p.m.

The shop had been the childhood dream of Marie and Émilie. Opened last May, it was the first business venture of any of the quints since they inherited $1,000,000 on their 21st birthday, May 28, 1955.

The night it opened for business, about 6,000 people jammed in.

Owners of nearby business places said tourists in the summer went to the shop in large numbers, apparently just to see Marie.

Customer Calls

Outside the shop Wednesday night one would-be customer kept trying to peer through the windows although the shades were drawn.

The customer, a woman, went to a nearby telephone and called the shop but got no answer. She said she "always liked to buy there because it's a good store."

Helene Bourget, flower arranger in Salon Émilie, said Marie's decision has been brought about by personal reasons but stressed her health was not affected.

Marie has long been the shist and most delicate of the quints. She was closest to Émilie, who died during an epileptic seizure in Ste. Agathe, Que., Aug. 6, 1954.

The two had taken courses together in flower arranging and as youngsters had been encouraged to cultivate a garden.

Miss Bourget quoted Marie as saying she will tend house for her sisters in the quints' plush west-end apartment now that she has closed shop.

Lives With Friend

Marie lives in the apartment with a girl friend. Her sisters, Yvonne and Cécile, stay there when on leave from Notre-Dame-de-l'Esperance Hospital in suburban St. Laurent where they are nurses.

The fourth surviving quint, Annette, is studying music at l'Assomption College in Nicolet, Que., 150 miles east of Montreal.

It had been reported that the shop had lost $25,000 during it's seven-month operation, but this could not be confirmed. It also was reported that Marie had agreed with the Guaranty Trust Company, which administers the Dionne quintuplets' fortune, that it would be better to close.

It was reported she had discussed giving up the business several months ago and had decided to close it by the end of the year. By doing so, it was said, she would be in a better position for tax purposes than if she had kept it open until 1957.

L. M. Edwards, who had acted as financial adviser and spokesman for the quints, declined comment.