In the 50 or 60 years after the sinking, a vast number of the Titanic’s surviving passengers died. By September 1973, only 100 Titanic survivors were still living. Here is a list of a few of the more famous of the last 100 survivors.
Washington Dodge, Jr., died 1974
Washington Dodge, Jr., was 4 years old when he was rescued from the Titanic in Lifeboat 5. His father’s account of the sinking made the newspapers, and the whole family became quite well known for their survival. Dodge, Jr., was married twice; became an investment banker; and died at the age of 67.
Edith (Rosenbaum) Russell, died 1975
After surviving the sinking of the Titanic at age 34, Edith Russell tried unsuccessfully to find a publisher for her account of the sinking. She served during World War I as perhaps the first female war correspondent. (Russell was her professional name.) She never married, and her final years were spent as a recluse living in a hotel in London. She was 98 when she died.
Frank Prentice, died 1982
Frank Prentice was a 22-year-old storekeeper on the Titanic victualling crew. As the ship was foundering, he talked about jumping overboard and swimming to Lifeboat 4. He ultimately did end up in the freezing water and was rescued by Lifeboat 4. Shortly before he died at the age of 92 in May 1982, Prentice appeared in the documentary Titanic: A Question of Murder in that same year.
Edwina Troutt, died 1984
Edwina Troutt, who was 27 years old when she survived the Titanic sinking, was a beloved guest at Titanic conventions and continued to attend even into her late 90s. She died in California at the age of 100. Edwina never let the Titanic sinking spook her: She made several Atlantic crossings throughout her life.
Ruth Becker, died 1990
Ruth Becker, age 12 when the Titanic sank, was at first a reluctant survivor. She didn’t want to talk about the Titanic for the decades during which she worked as a teacher. But after she retired, she began attending Titanic conventions and willingly discussing the sinking. She died in 1990 at the age of 90. Her ashes were scattered over the Titanic’s resting place.
Eva Hart, died 1996
Eva Hart was one of the most outspoken of all the Titanic survivors. She routinely talked about the negligence of having too few lifeboats, and she went on record as being an avid antisalvage advocate. She felt the Titanic was a gravesite, and she didn’t believe anything should be taken from the ship or the debris field. She died in 1996 at the age of 91. The Eva Hart pub in Essex, England, is named in her honor.
Edith Brown, died 1997
Edith Brown, who was 15 years old when she survived the Titanic’s sinking, was best known for appearing at a ceremony in 1993 during which she was presented with her father’s pocket watch that had been recovered from the Titanic wreckage. Edith Brown Haisman died in Southampton in 1997 at the age of 100.
Lillian Asplund, died 2006
Lillian Asplund was the last Titanic survivor with actual memories of the sinking. She remembered being passed through a window of the Promenade deck to a lifeboat and looking up and seeing the faces of her father and her three brothers. She was 5 years old at the time. She said that memory haunted her for her entire life. She died in Massachusetts in 2006 at the age of 100.
Barbara Joyce West Dainton, died 2007
Barbara Dainton was the second-to-last remaining survivor of the sinking of the Titanic when she died at the age of 96 on October 16, 2007. Dainton was born in May 1911 and was 11 months old when the Titanic sailed. She was a second-class passenger and was rescued in Lifeboat 10. Dainton resided in England, one of only two British Titanic passengers to survive, and throughout her life, she steadfastly refused to discuss the Titanic with anyone.
Eleanor Johnson Shuman, died 2008
Eleanor Shuman was less than 2 years old when the Titanic went down in 1912. Shuman was returning to the United States on the Titanic after visiting her family in Europe. Her mother and brother also survived. Shuman died in Illinois on March 7, 1998.
Elizabeth Gladys Millvina Dean, died 2009
Millvina Dean was one of the most beloved Titanic survivors to die. She died in 2009 at the age of 97. She was only 10 weeks old when she sailed on the Titanic, and she didn’t learn that she had been on the ship until she was 8 years old. She attended many Titanic society conventions until poor health prevented her from traveling.
She spent her final years in a nursing home in Southampton, England. Reportedly, Kate Winslet, Leonardo DiCaprio, and James Cameron donated approximately $35,000 to pay her nursing home fees.