Cristina’s Blog

Agence France Presse reports that Dean, who died on May 31 at age 97 in a nursing home in Hampshire, England after suffering a short illness, survived as an infant on the Titanic when she was bundled up in a sack and then carried to safety. Her mother Georgette Eva and brother Bertram also made it, but her father, Bertram Frank, was among those who died, according to the British Titanic Society, of which Dean was the honorary president. Millvina was the youngest passenger on board the RMS Titanic.

Dean’s family was moving to America where her father hoped to begin a new life in Kansas by opening a tobacco store. After their rescue, the family returned to England. Millvina was eight years old before she was even told that she had been on board the ship. The president of the U.S.-based Titanic International Society, Charles Haas, mourned the loss of the “last living link to the Titanic” and a “dear friend.” He told AFP, “While she never sought the limelight, she enjoyed its results in meeting people and travelling the world. Her story inspires us as a story of hope after adversity and teaches that a full and rewarding life can follow personal tragedy and loss. We will miss her very much, but never forget her or the other 2,200 aboard Titanic.”

Dean never married and worked as a cartographer for the British government during World War II and then later for an engineering company in Southampton. It wasn’t until the wreckage of the Titanic was found in 1985 that she became a celebrity. She told the BBC in 2000 that while she didn’t mind the attention, she was surprised by it. “I think sometimes they look on me as if I am the Titanic!” While she accepted an invitation in 1997 to complete her family’s journey to the United States aboard the QE2, she declined to attend the premiere of the blockbuster movie “Titanic.” Why? She thought it would be just too upsetting.

_NETSCAPE