Who dies in V.C. Andrews’ Dawn Part 1 on Lifetime?

Dawn Part 1, the beginning of Lifetime‘s four week event based on the books by V.C. Andrews, began happily. The Longchamps moved to Richmond, VA with their minds on a bright future. Ormand told his daughter that they wouldn’t be moving again. She and her brother, Jimmy, had spent much of their lives living in different parts of the country, never able to truly settle and build a life.

Ormand’s job as the head of maintenance at the Emerson Peabody School not only would provide the family with the stability they craved but also the siblings would be getting a good education without their parents spending a dime. Unfortunately, fitting in didn’t go so well. Dawn had to deal with Clara Jean Cutler’s bullying while Jimmy got into a fist fight with two boys who made fun of him because of their father’s occupation and who also called his sister a slut for her relationship with Philip Culter.

What the family didn’t know, however, was that these issues would be the least of their worries. Sally Longchamp, who was pregnant at the start of the movie and gave birth early on in the film, recovered from delivering her child, Fern, but couldn’t shake a persistent cough that worsened over time.

Who dies in Dawn Part 1?

The night of the spring concert, when Dawn made her debut as a soloist, Sally was rushed to the hospital. Her condition took a sharp turn and the doctor explained that she had consumption, a wasting disease that had weakened her system. She’d been brought in far too late for medical intervention and died shortly after Jimmy went to go get Dawn to bring her to see their mother.

The family barely got to grieve together before it was revealed that Ormand and Sally weren’t her biological parents and they’d been accused of kidnapping her. The movie later reveals the truth is far more complicated but, it’s still true that Dawn isn’t a Longchamp by blood. She’s a Cutler.

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