Johanne Lee Chant (nee Morrison) has died, after a life marked by a heartbreaking, childhood legal saga

The “wrong baby case” — where a couple believed a hospital had given them someone else’s baby — captivated Australians. Now the woman at the heart of the tragic story has died.

Noel and Jessie Jenkins with Nola in 1949. Picture: Trove

A woman at the heart of one of the most captivating legal controversies in the state’s history had been laid to rest, with her family declaring she was now “at peace, after much suffering”.

Johanne Lee Chant (nee Morrison), 77, died surrounded by her loving family at Cabrini Hospital in Malvern in late February, her life forever marked by a heartbreaking legal saga which dominated her childhood.

Ms Chant — known to her friends and family as Lee — was one of two babies born at the maternity ward at the tiny Kyneton District Hospital on June 22, 1945.

The couple who took her home, Alberta Morrison and her husband, William, who both had blue eyes, soon moved with the brown-eyed baby Johanne to Woomelang in the Mallee region.

They became convinced baby Johanne was not theirs, and that there had been a mix-up at the hospital on the day of her birth.

Johanne Lee in 1949. Picture: Trove

Nola in 1949. Picture: Trove

Mr Morrison approached Noel and Jessie Jenkins, who had gone home with baby Nola, with his suspicions.

Blood tests later proved Mr Morrison could not have been Johanne’s biological father, and the Morrisons sued, demanding the Jenkins family hand Nola over, and declaring that Johanne was not theirs.

The so-called “wrong baby case” captivated Australians in the late 1940s and early 1950s, with a popular magazine describing the case as “the no. 1 human-interest story of 1948”.

Mr Morrison told the Supreme Court that year he and his wife were “very fond of Johanne” and that she was “brought up as a member of their family” despite the couple being adamant she was the Jenkins’ child.

In a dramatic twist, the Jenkins family refused to have baby Nola blood tested, insisting she was their own.

Mrs Jenkins told the Supreme Court baby Nola’s striking blue eyes were passed down from her grandparents, and declared that her unique facial expressions were enough to prove she was theirs.

The Victorian Supreme Court at one point ordered baby Nola to be surrendered to the Morrison family, with a judge urging the families to set aside their differences, and holiday together to minimise the trauma to the girls.

Mrs Jenkins with Nola in 1949. Picture: Trove

Alberta Morrison with Johanne Lee in 1949. Picture: Trove

Had that order stood, Johanne and Nola would likely have been raised as sisters, because the Jenkins family never claimed baby Johanne was theirs, and never did not want a swap.

But on appeal, the Full Court, and later the High Court, overturned the Supreme Court’s decision, with Mrs Morrison breaking down in tears in the High Court gallery when the verdict was handed down.

The saga then dragged on to the Privy Council in London, which was at the time the final court of appeal for Australian cases.

Mrs Morrison at the time said: “For the sake of the two little girls I want this matter to go before the world’s highest legal authority.

“Taking this matter to the Privy Council is what every mother would do. I want my little girl and I want Mrs Jenkins to have her child.”

Alberta Morrison with Johanne Lee. The saga inspired a bestseller book Whose Baby and a TV miniseries of the same title. Picture: Trove

There was a groundswell of public support for the Morrison family, who received the equivalent of millions of dollars in donations to pay their legal bills.

But the Privy Council refused the Morrisons’ application to hear the case, saying they had only proven Johanne, by then nearly five, was not Mr Morrison’s biological child. The couple had not proven Nola was their baby.

The saga enthralled newspaper readers but devastated both families.

It later inspired a bestseller book, Whose Baby, and a TV miniseries of the same title.

Johanne Lee Chant is survived by her husband, Joe, four of her five children, and four grandchildren.

Throughout her life, she remained intensely private and protective of her children.

She was laid to rest at a requiem mass at St Augustine’s Catholic Church in Kyabram on Tuesday.