Elizabeth Gladys Dean died yesterday at a nursing home in Southampton at the age of 97. Known as Millvina, she was the last surviving passenger on the Titanic, the ocean liner that sank in 1912.
She was only nine weeks old at the time, traveling with her parents and brother from Southampton, England to Wichita, Kansas. Her father didn’t survive, but her mother and brother did. Millvina didn’t find out until she was eight years old that she’d been a passenger on the ship.
Here’s the news story about her death.
The British Titanic Society has a page here that describes a fund set up to help cover her recent medical costs.
And this story has an interview and profile. Speaking about the fund set up in her name, which drew donations from film director James Cameron and actors Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet, Dean said:
Millvina herself is a little taken aback by all the fuss. Rather glamorously turned out in a pair of black velvet trousers, a pink diamanté brooch sparkling at her throat, she says: “I was watching the 10 o’clock news last night, half-asleep, then I looked up and said, ‘coo, that’s me’! All I get now are phone calls all day from people asking me how I feel about Leonardo DiCaprio. I’m absolutely browned off with all the phoning!”