LONDON , Oct. 17, 2008
Last Titanic Survivor Hits Rough Waters
96-Year-Old Woman Sells Mementos From Doomed Ship To Pay Nursing Home Bills
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Play CBS Video Video Titanic Survivor Sinks In Debt Millvina McLean is the last living survivor of the Titanic and, at 96 years old, she has been forced to auction off her valuable Titanic souvenirs to pay for her nursing home. Mark Phillips reports.
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Millvina Dean, seen here in 1998, as she signs a "Titanic" movie poster for an enthusiast at the Titanic Historical Society's convention in Springfield, Mass. Dean, now 96, said she has no memories of the ship sinking. (AP Photo/Nancy Palmieri)
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Photo Essay Titanic Artifacts Pictures from the 2003 Titanic Exhibition at Chicago's Museum of Science and Industry.
Rescued from the bitterly cold Atlantic on that April 1912 night, Dean, her 2-year-old brother and her mother were taken to New York with nothing but the clothes on their backs. Before returning home to England, they were given a small wicker suitcase of donated clothing, a gift from New Yorkers to help them rebuild their lives.
Now, Dean is selling the suitcase and other Titanic mementos to help pay her nursing home fees. They are expected to go for $5,200 at an auction of Titanic memorabilia Saturday in Devizes in western England.
Among the items are rare prints of the Titanic and letters from the Titanic Relief Fund offering her mother one pound, seven shillings and sixpence a week in compensation.
But the key item in the sale is the suitcase, said auctioneer Andrew Aldridge. "They would have carried their little world in this suitcase," he said Thursday.
Dean has lived at Woodlands Ridge, a private nursing home in the southern city of Southampton - Titanic's home port - since she broke her hip two years ago.
"I am not able to live in my home anymore," Dean was quoted as telling the Southern Daily Echo newspaper. "I am selling it all now because I have to pay these nursing home fees and am selling anything that I think might fetch some money."
Dean told CBS News correspondent Mark Phillips that her nursing home fees run as much as 3,000 pounds, or close to $5,000 dollars, a month.
Although Britain has a free health care system, private providers offer more comprehensive services for a fee. In the case of nursing homes, state-run facilities are available and cost much less than private ones. But they are more spartan and offer fewer amenities, such as shared rooms and no private TVs.
"I'm not, what's the word, materialistic - not the slightest bit. I am now," Dean told CBS News.
Local authorities often pay a portion of the costs of private nursing home care based on an individual's assets; anyone with more than $39,000 in assets has to pay their own fees.
But another rescue may be at hand, reports Phillips. As her story spread, people decided to help.
"I really felt that this was something that could really pay lasting tribute to all the people who died on the Titanic," Guy Schum, a printer in Virginia, told CBS News.
"She survived the Titanic. Why is she having trouble in a nursing home at 96," said John Fitz-William, an opera singer in Chicago.
In 1912, baby Elizabeth Gladys "Millvina" Dean and her family were steerage passengers emigrating to Kansas City, Mo., aboard the Titanic.
Four days out of port, on the night of April 14, 1912, it hit an iceberg and sank. Billed as "practically unsinkable" by the publicity magazines of the period, the Titanic did not have enough lifeboats for all 2,200 passengers and crew.
Dean, her mother Georgetta and brother Bertram Jr. were among 706 people - mostly women and children - who were rescued by the steamship Carpathia and survived. Her father, Bertram Dean, was among more than 1,500 who died.
Dean did not know she had been aboard the Titanic until she was 8 years old, when her mother, who was about to remarry, told her about her father's death.
She has no memories of the sinking and said she preferred it that way.
"I wouldn't want to remember, really," she told The Associated Press in a 1997 interview.
Dean said she had seen the 1958 film, "A Night to Remember," with other survivors, but found it so upsetting that she declined to watch any other movies about the disaster, including the 1997 blockbuster "Titanic," starring Leonardo Di Caprio and Kate Winslet.
Dean began to take part in Titanic-related activities in the 1980s, and was active well into her 90s. She visited Belfast, Northern Ireland, to see where the ship was built, attended Titanic conventions around the world - where she was mobbed by autograph-seekers - and participated in radio and television documentaries about the sinking.
The last American survivor of the disaster, Lillian Asplund, died in 2006 at the age of 99. Another British survivor, Barbara Joyce West Dainton, died last November at 96.
Aldridge said the "massive interest" in Titanic memorabilia shows no signs of abating. Last year, a collection of items belonging to Asplund sold for more than $175,000.
"It's the people, the human angle," Aldridge said. "You had over 2,200 men, women and children on that ship, from John Jacob Astor, the richest person in the world at the time, to a poor Scandinavian family emigrating to the States to start a new life. There were 2,200 stories."
© MMVIII, CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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See all 46 CommentsBut, with respect, most comments here have missed the point - that this lady''s actually fortunate to have something worth selling in order to raise money.
Many old people just don''t have collectable things to auction.
As for selling Titanic memorabilia, it doesn''t really match the case of someone I knew here in Britain who auctioned his war medals - gallantry awards can fetch a good price with collectors on the internet, and some of the biggest bidders are Americans. I''ve never understood the attraction of owning someone else''s bravery awards.
What will be the nationality of the person who buys this old lady''s souvenirs? Where do the most avid gatherers of Titanic memorabilia live?
How hypocritical.
The story about trained fleas goes like this: About a dozen fleas are placed inside a jar that is sealed with a lid. For two weeks, the fleas jump and bang their heads and eventually learn not to jump so high. After a few weeks, the lid is removed. The fleas are conditioned not to jump so high and never escape. For the one that does and escapes, they always cry out, "Jump a little Higher!!"
Every survivor, like my 4th grade teacher, Eva Hart, was crying out for us to jump a little higher.
"Titanic mementos to help pay her nursing home fees. They are expected to go for $5,200 at an auction "
So basically this will only cover one MONTH more in the nursing home- remember: the auction house takes a percentage for fees too, then there''s taxes...
A freaking ordinary suitcase purchased in NYC is suddenly valuable?? people are nuts, valuable is something off the SHIP itself not some old suitcase bought in NYC given to a survivor.
"Where is the Queen of England and why hasnt she helped this woman??
Posted by cattieJ"
Too busy shining up her silver and diamonds no doubt, amazing how this woman sits amongst diamonds, jewels, gold, silver, valuable art, chauffers etc etc- all paid for by working and poor sheeple, meanwhile homeless people live in the park and in cardboard boxes, nice system eh?
Posted by cattieJ
James Cameron and the rest of his movie production folks should take the time and interest to financially help this lady.
hypnotoad72
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What reality are you people living in? Are you in some sort of psychosis or what?
This story is not about this woman, it is about YOU! Do you think that your little wage checks are going to protect you from ending up like her? Are you in that much denial?
You have just seen in the last 2 weeks how your little dreams of 401k''s and pensions can disappear in a puff of Wall Street smoke. Are you still living the delusion that this can''t happen to you?
You are the poor people and there ain''t no life boats for you. The whole health care business is designed as well as the Titanic and its already hit the iceberg. But you just keep vomiting this insane discourse as if everything is just sailing along can''t possibly end up going down with it. Then what...who are you going after for the money to save you? the Queen? James Cameron? Luke Skywalker? I can''t even believe you are talking like this.
When I went to bed last night I was in my 20''s, when I woke up this morning I was in my 50''s. That''s how fast your life passes. You had better wake up and stop this craziness or you will soon be wishing you were as well off as this woman. And it will be a lot sooner than you believe.
Posted by hypnotoad72
Nahh, He only made an EPISODE not a full length feature film.
Posted by ToolMangler
In 1912, baby Elizabeth Gladys "Millvina" Dean and her family were steerage passengers emigrating to Kansas City, Mo., aboard the Titanic.
I think they were not wealthy either...
Ms. Millvina McLean
C/O Woodlands Ridge
191 Woodlands, Southampton, SO4O 7GL
United Kingdom
I can''t afford much but I think $20.00 U.S. might help...
Prince Charles spends 5,000 dollars every day, probably most of it on Camilla and his kids.
The people of England should support this women. She is the last of the Titanic passangers. The last of one of the great history events in the world.
(why do we bring people from other countries to the U.S. to be treated at our hospital''s) and other countries like England won''t take care of Ms. McLean who at 96, and is a countrymen. Shame on them, shame on Queen Elizabeth for allowing this to happen, that all her items must be sold to pay for her keep.
Shame on England.
Posted by beader59 at 06:39 PM : Oct 17, 2008
Yeah, $l000-$1500 a week does seem like an awful lot. That should be for two weeks. I think it is approximately $2500 here, for 1 month. Maybe not even that.
Here is an opportunity for the Titanic movie production company folks to stand up and do the right thing.
That movie made more than 600 million dollars from all over the world.
James Cameron and the rest of his movie production folks should take the time and interest to financially help this lady.
Create some good will... !
Posted by dakotaclark at 01:14 PM : Oct 17, 2008
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Hey, this is creative capitalism - don''t tell people what to do with their hard earned money!
Why not ask the producer of Doctor Who, Russell T Davies - he made an episode involving a Titanic too.
Posted by Good4Always at 05:21 PM : Oct 17, 2008
I never graduated from high school. However I have a masters in Metallurgy, Tool Design, and Tool Making. I speak and understand the English language very well. Also I am able to "Sprechen Kleine Deutsch, So going by your criteria that would make you very ''educated'' and me ''very smart''. I got my degrees by doing the work as well as learning about it.
Posted by Good4Always at 03:12 PM : Oct 17, 2008
They did ''NOT'' put any poor people in the life boats from any race. A few managed to get in them by disguising themselves. What is your point?
Just curious: is English your second language? Did you graduate from high school?
now this is where you are making me laugh!!
Actually English is my 4th language out of 9 languages that I can Speak, Read and write very well.
I have a Masters in System and software Engineering. A batchelors in Physical Chemistry (which I never used since I opted Software Developmet as my career)
Beside English, IN WHAT 8 OTHER LANGUAGES, SIMULTANOUSLY, YOU WOULD LIKE TO TALK WITH ME?
MAKE SURE THAT YOU SPEAK (WRITE) THE NEXT CONVERSATION IN DIFFERENT LANG THEN THE PREVIOUS ONE.
LETS PROVE WHO IS LESS EDUCATED AND WHO IS VERY SMART.
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