Millvina Dean Is Last Titanic Survivor

Meet Millvina Dean, the last Titanic survivor. She is now 96 and is selling her mementos to help pay for her nursing home care.Millvina Dean is the last Titanic survivor; she was two months old when the ship struck an iceberg and sunk. Now, at 96, she cannot afford her health care and is being forced to auction off her mementos, in hopes of raising the $5000 she needs. Personal items include a 100-year-old suitcase filled with clothes given to her family by the people of New York after surviving the Titanic tragedy.“I was hoping to be here for two weeks after breaking my hip but I developed an infection and have been here for two years. I am not able to live in my home any more,” she told 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,” she added. “The fees are quite expensive. The more money I can get from the auction the better.”Elizabeth Gladys “Millvina” Dean was born on February 2, 1912 making her age 96. She was born in London and had one older brother. Her parents decided to leave England in hopes of opening a tobacco shop in Kansas, near family. They were not supposed to be on the Titanic, but were transferred to the ship due to a coal strike. Boarding as third class passengers, Millvina was only 2 months old. Her father felt the iceberg strike and sent his family to the deck, where he placed them on a Lifeboat. In the chaos her brother and father were lost. She was later reunited with her brother, but her father was never found.

Being only two months, Millvina Dean doesn’t remember anything of the Titanic. Because of this she didn’t become involved in Titanic events until she was in her 70’s. Now she has participated in several conventions, exhibitions, documentaries, television and radio interviews.Sadly Millvina cannot pay for her health care and has to sell her possessions in an attempt to raise money. The auction will be held Saturday at Henry Aldridge and Son auctioneers in Devizes Wiltshire.“The suitcase is a very emotive and unusual item and epitomizes what the people of New York did for the Titanic survivors,” Andrew Aldridge said. “It also highlights what state the survivors were in when they got to New York. Many people lost everything down to the clothes they were standing in.”