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Note: Like her sister, Doris, JANET ADELAIDE WALTERS was born in "Chantry Cottage" (June 25, 1896) which was a home attached to Holy Trinity Church in Ashford-in-the-Water, Derbyshire, England.
Janet often spoke of the girls' boarding school ("Snairsbrook") which she and her sisters, Geraldine and Doris, attended in England. It was operated by two sisters who were strict disciplinarians with the girls. Janet was about six years old at that time, and she recalled being placed in a tub of cold water as a punishment for crying! Another time she was placed in a wooden toy box with the lid held shut. The girls were never permitted to speak privately with their parents on visiting day as one of the two sisters who operated the school would always sit with the family. It was only after they left the school to travel to Canada that they were able to tell their parents of their experiences. They had been placed in the school because their father, Eugene, was planning to become a medical missionary in Angola, Africa, and the daughters of other missionaries were boarding there.
When Eugene decided to move to Canada instead of Africa, the family was delighted. Janet remembered climbing a cherry tree just before they left their home to sail to Canada; she shouted from the tree, "Good bye, Miss Fairthorne, we are going to Canada!" Miss Fairthorne was a neighbour who had been very kind to Janet and her brothers and sisters.
After they moved to Winnipeg in 1904, the WALTERS children attended local schools and made many new friends. As young women, Janet and her sisters Doris and Geraldine were beautifully dressed; their father, Eugene, who had an active medical practice in addition to being a minister, was very proud of his children. Later, Janet and Doris trained to do shorthand and typing; Doris worked for Royal Crown Soap (Lever Brothers) and Janet worked for a large insurance company. Geraldine worked for Hudson Bay Company and Imperial Oil for a short time, but later became a nurse in her father's hospital. As a hobby, Janet painted with oils and played the piano (popular and classical music -- with or without sheet music!).
Janet's fiance, Alex WATTS, a Captain in the Canadian Army, returned from Europe after the end of World War I, and after serving in Russia for many months helping to train the white Russian soldiers fighting the revolutionary forces. They were married in 1921.
For the first few years of their marriage, Alex had a very good job at the Winnipeg Grain Exchange, and they enjoyed an active social life. Friends they had made as young adults, remained for many years. One of Janet's lifetime friends was Edith (St Louis) LINDSAY, daughter of Romualo Gadeau Xavier St Louis, the man who founded the town of St Louis (near Selkirk) which was later named Petersfield. Janet's parents had purchased the St Louis' summer cottage which was an enjoyable place to visit -- until it burned to the ground! The WALTERS family then purchased another cottage nearby.
Another close friend was Jenny Clark; she married Harold Riley who worked at the Winnipeg Grain Exchange as did Alex. It was a terrible shock to their family and many friends when Harold was killed in an accident in the early days of motor cars.
In those days Janet and Alex were very fortunate to be in a position to employ a fine young Ukrainian woman, Marnie, who helped with household chores and looked after Holly and Moyra. It wasn't long before she was more like a family member than an employee.
When the Stock Market crashed in 1929, life became very difficult. Janet's parents, Dr. Eugene and Eva WALTERS, felt the stress of the Great Depression along with other people -- as patients were not always able to pay their medical bills with money. Instead, they brought food they had raised -- such as chickens, potatoes, and even maple syrup. Records were kept in a book showing some patients had paid their medical bills at the rate of $1 per month. Now that their children were grown, the WALTERS rented out their large home and moved, along with Janet, Alex, Holly, Moyra and Marnie, to a duplex owned by a friend, Dr. Thompson, who lived with his wife in the upstairs apartment. The duplex was located at 315 Balmoral Street, near Portage Avenue, in Winnipeg.
During the depression years, Janet had to struggle to feed the family with very little money available, as Alex had lost his position at the Winnipeg Grain Exchange. Bread in a dish with milk and sugar) was a usual breakfast and lunch; most nights, dinner was a baked potato with cheese sauce. On special occasions, canned peas and pork sausages were added. For dessert, Holly and Moyra shared an orange or an apple -- Janet made the treat seem larger by cutting the fruit into small pieces. After one of Eugene's patients paid their bill with four gallon cans of pure maple syrup -- a bowl of syrup was a very enjoyable dessert for all!
As Janet had learned to sew and knit very well, she was able to earn some money by knitting "winter coats" for dogs, as well as by knitting baby clothes and ladies' dresses for $5 each (plus the yarn). Moyra, from age 3 to 5 years, also earned a little cash for the family when she modelled for a commercial photographer, Mr. Crooks, and for Y.M.C.A. drawing classes. Ten dollars for a sitting was considered a large sum in those days!
About 1930, Marnie, who by now seemed like an older sister to Holly and Moyra, moved with the family to St Catherine's, Ontario, where Alex found a temporary job. About this time she met a fine young man, Joe Doyle. When the family moved back to Winnipeg to live with Janet's parents, Marnie moved with them, then found employment with another family. Marnie and Joe were married July 6, 1937 -- two years after Janet, Alex and their two daughters had moved to Vancouver with the hope Alex would be able to find employment there. Marnie and Joe had two children, Mavis and Terry -- Janet continued to keep in touch and enjoyed hearing news of the happy Doyle family.
Janet by now had developed arthritis and had to walk with two canes, but she did have a job in a lamp shade factory for a while; Alex worked as an appliance salesman for the B.C. Electric Company. At this time they were living in West Vancouver where they could watch the new Lions Gate Bridge being built. To visit Vancouver, they travelled on the Hollyburn or Bonnybelle ferry.
For many years, their cooking was done on a wooden stove which also heated the house. In one home, which was situated at "Wings Point" at the foot of 26th Street, in West Vancouver, right next to the ocean, there was a china jug and basin in the "bathroom" for washing instead of a tub; in another home, the bath was a large metal tub with water heated on the stove then carried to the tub. Holly used the water first, then Janet, then Moyra, then Alex!
In 1940 the WATTS' family moved to the city of Vancouver where Alex re-enlisted in the Army, during World War II, once again with the rank of Captain. He served in Canada; because of his age he could not serve in Europe. Janet was a volunteer in the Allied Officers Club where she was in charge of the membership committee. For many years she was also a volunteer at the Red Cross Lodge in Shaughnessy Military Hospital in Vancouver along with her sister, Doris, her sister-in-law Ethel WALTERS, and long-time friend Edith (St Louis) LINDSAY.
Throughout her life, Janet continued playing the piano, as well as knitting, sewing, crochetting; she made braided as well as hooked rugs; refinished furniture and decorated every home in which her family lived -- she and Alex were like a team, Alex looked after the garden and outside of the house, while Janet looked after the inside, including decorating.
About 1954, Alex was posted in the Canadian Immigration Office in Hong Kong for six months. While there, he and Janet met some people visiting from Tasmania -- where Janet's uncle Harry WALTERS had settled. As the family had lost contact in the 1930's, Janet decided to try to find the WALTERS family in Tasmania. About 1960 she received a letter from a Harold David WALTERS who said he remembered being told his grandfather's name was Henry. Unfortunately there was no further correspondence.
About 1996 Janet's daughter, Moyra, wanted to find the relatives in Tasmania and sent a letter addressed to Harold David WALTERS at the address in his letter. Unfortunately the letter was returned as Mr. Walters had died -- but, by a strange co-incidence -- someone in the Ulverstone post office had a friend named Tania whose maiden name was WALTERS, so a photocopy of Moyra's envelope was given to Tania. As it turned out, Harold David WALTERS was her grandfather; Tania and her father Bruce made a phone call from Tasmania to Moyra -- and later sent their family tree that went back to a Thurgoland WALTERS. Since there was the tradition to pass down a mother's or grandmother's maiden name as a middle, it may be that this man was named Henry Thurgoland WALTERS as there were many Henrys in the WALTERS family. More research is needed.
In about 1963 Janet made her decision to join the Anglican Church of Canada and was confirmed. As a child, she had been raised in the Baptist Church; Alex had been raised as an Anglican -- as had Holly and Moyra.
Janet worked full time for many years (until she was age 72) as head of the typing pool in a large general insurance office in Vancouver.
Of great interest to Janet for many years, were the lives of the Dionne quintuplets who were born in Canada, on May 28, 1934. From then on she collected information and many photographs of the five little girls -- enough to fill a large album! Keeping right up to date with all the facts about the girls, brought hours of enjoyment to Janet. In tribute to her interest in the "quints" a brief history of the Dionne family will follow below.
Alex died suddenly on January 29, 1964 of a heart attack; Janet died suddenly on October 22, 1972 in her West Vancouver apartment which was located near to her two daughters. She is buried next to Alex at Capilano View Cemetary, West Vancouver, B.C.
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BITS OF HISTORY -- THE DIONNE QUINTUPLETS
The Dionne quintuplets were born May 28, 1934 on a farm in the back woods of Northern Ontario, a few miles from the town of Callander -- they were five idential girls. In the past, quintuplets had only lived for a few days -- and of those who were born they were usually fraternal quintuplets, not identical! The father was Oliva and the mother was Elzire, and there were five older children: Daniel, Pauline, Ernest, Rose and Therese. The quintuplets were Yvonne, Annette, Cecile, Emilie and Marie.
In the year 1934 during the "Great Depression" they became a ray of sunshine as people all over the world read about them, and saw photographs of them on a regular basis. For the first nine years of their life, they were the world's best known babies; and Dr. Allan Roy Dafoe became the world's best known doctor. Even Canada was brought to the attention of millions of people around the world -- because of the Dionne quintuplets!
Gifts poured in from commercial and private donors; letters arrived from all over the world -- at a rate of more than 100 a week.
Eventurally four guardians were appointed to supervise the finances of the quintuplets. A special hospital was needed, and a nursery -- the expenses were beyond the means of the Dionne's income. This was the beginning of the girls being separated from their family.
As the quints grew older the general public came to view them in a playground called "Quintland" that had been built, complete with a public observation area. Next to it was a private playground and the Dafoe nursery. There was a guard house and a staff house -- there was also was the Dionne homestead, Oliva Dionne's woollen shop, Oliva Dionne's souvenir shop -- and public washrooms.
Being viewed by the public on a daily basis, without the company of their parents and siblings, was like living in a fish bowl -- and seemed to separate the girls even more from their family. It was suggested, that life in a glass house was not conducive to normal human development ... perhaps there would be problems ahead.
Specialist were called in to give psychological and child rearing advice -- and they needed nurses and teachers. They were isolated more and more from their family. At the same time, they were bringing in money for the province of Ontario -- even tourism flourished in the area. The quints had become big business!
By the time they were eight years old, the girls who spoke only French, were learning English. They were spending more time with their family, and were getting out into the public areas more often.
On June 2, 1943, Allan Roy Dafoe died suddenly of pneumonia. Leslie Howard, the film star, had vanished in an airplane over the Bay of Biscay. World War II was continuing -- and on November 3, 1943 the Dionne family was finally reunited under one roof. But the reunion did not bring the happiness they had all expected.
On their eighteenth birthday, in May, 1952, Oliva Dionne announced that his daughters would leave home for the first time to attend school at the convent of the Sisters of the Assumption at Nicolet, Quebec. The following year, Marie announced her intention of becoming a nun; she was enrolled at the Convent of the Holy Sacrament in Quebec City, where it was reported she would be treated "just like any other girl." Yvonne went to study at the Congregation of Notre Dame in Montreal. The three other sisters continud their schooling at Nicolet.
In 1954 Emile died during an epileptic seizure. The fact that she suffered from epilepsy had been hidden from the outside world; but the sisters had known how to handle her attacks. This time, she was alone with no help available.
A separation between the remaining quints and their family appeared once again. Even their father made statements to the press about the girls treating their brothers and sisters with contempt. In the spring of 1957 Marie suffered a nervous breakdown after the failure of a business ventue -- a small flower shop.
In October 1957 Annette married Germain Allard; not long afterwards, Cecile married Philippe Langlois. A year later Marie was married secretly to Florian Houle; she did not inform her sisters until the night before the marriage and she made no attempt to tell her parents. Yvonne, who had been studying art and sculpture, announced in 1961, that she intended to become a nun.
The predictions had come true; by separating the quintuplets from their family - physically, psychologically, and financially -- a split had widened that could never be repaired. In 1964 Cecile's marriage ended. Marie's ended the same year; in February 1970, she died, probably from a blood clot to the brain, the doctors reported.
Annette, was beginning to blossom with the help of her husband, Germain. Yvonne, who had three times been unsuccessful in becoming a nun, bought a house near Annette.
The sisters began spending more time together, and were becoming a closed circle similar to when they were young. As a result Annette's marriage ended as well. The sisters received the final instalment of their trust fund in 1979 but the funds had dwindled over the years. In the 1990's the three sued for a small portion of the funds earned by the Province of Ontario because of their popularity when they were young; and received a sum that would keep them comfortably for the rest of their life.
BIBLIOGRAPHY:
"The Dionne Years" by Pierre Berton, McClelland and Stewart, Toronto, Ontario, 1977.
(updated January 22, 2000)
(M. T. Burnett, May 12, 1999)
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