Last Titanic survivor Millvina Dean dies at 97

[MacNut]

Millvina Dean, the last survivor of the legendary ocean liner Titanic, which sank on its maiden voyage in April 1912 after striking an iceberg in the North Atlantic, died Sunday. She was 97.

She died at a nursing home near Southampton, England, the port where she and her family boarded the ship, according to Charles Haas, the president of the Titanic International Society. Her death came on the 98th anniversary of the launching of the Titanic, on May 31, 1911.

"She was a remarkable, sparkling lady," Haas told The Times on Sunday. "She knew her place in history and was always willing to share her story with others, especially children. She was the last living link to the story."

Dean was about 8 weeks old when she and her family set sail, third class, on the luxury ocean liner on April 10, 1912. Five days later, she was among about 700 passengers and crew who were rescued off the coast of Newfoundland. She and her mother, Georgetta, 32, and her brother Bertram, 23 months old, were put into lifeboats. Her father, Bertram, 27, stayed on board the ship and was among more than 1,500 passengers and crew members who went down with the Titanic.

She had no memory of the disaster, but at age 8 her mother told her what had happened. "It was so awful for her that she never wanted to speak about it," Dean said of her mother in a 2002 interview with the Irish News. Georgetta Dean suffered severe headaches every day for years after the ship's sinking.

Before the family left England, Bertram and Georgetta Dean sold the pub they owned in London. They planned to sail to New York City and continue on to Kansas City, Mo., where they were going to open a tobacco shop.

They did not expect to travel on the Titanic but had booked on another ship that was also owned by White Star Line. A national coal strike led to a cancellation, and they were offered a place on the Titanic as an alternative.

On their fourth night at sea, April 14, the family was awakened by a jolt when the ship sideswiped the iceberg that cut into the ship.

Bertram Dean went to see what was wrong and returned to tell his wife to dress the children warmly and take them to the lifeboat deck.

"I think it was my father who saved us," Dean said in 2002. "So many other people thought the Titanic would never sink, and they didn't bother. My father didn't take a chance."

He reassured his wife, "I'll be along later," Dean later learned. Bertram Dean died when the Titanic sank about 2:20 a.m. on April 15.

In the confusion of the evacuation, Dean and her mother were separated from her brother, who was put in a different lifeboat. They were reunited on the Carpathia, the Cunard ocean liner that was the first to respond to the Titanic's distress signals and took on all the lifeboat passengers.

Dean, her mother and brother sailed to New York City on the rescue ship and spent several weeks in a hospital. Georgetta Dean then took her children home to England, sailing on the Adriatic. Passengers who knew what the family had been through lined up to hold baby Millvina, the youngest survivor of the Titanic. To keep the line moving, a ship's officer ordered that no one could hold the baby for more than 10 minutes.

Asked what difference the incident made in her life, Dean was never sentimental. "It changed my life because I would have been American now instead of English," she told the Associated Press in 2002 without further comment.
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http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-me-millvina-dean1-2009jun01,0,907355.story

 

[Scepticalscribe]

Thanks for posting that story. I had read it when it broke and read an earlier story - in April, I think - which described how she had to sell some of her Titanic souvenirs in order to be able to keep up payment for her nursing home care costs. Apparently, the stars of the movie Titanic, when they learned of this, chipped in with a small contribution towards her costs.

Cheers

 

[echeck]

Thanks for the story!

I don't keep up with the news of late, too depressing. So I had no idea. Honestly I didn't realize there were any survivors left.

I enjoyed reading the article, thanks!

 

[Melrose]

I kept an eye (Googley speaking) on the last survivors for a few years now... I knew she was old.

I thought it was nice that DiCaprio and Winslet stepped up to help pay her nursing bills. It's a pity there's so little that can be done when you're that age.

RIP