The most famous Titanic survivor, ‘new money’ socialite and philanthropist Margaret Brown became known as ‘the Unsinkable Molly Brown.’ There was a Broadway musical based on her and, later, a film starring Debbie Reynolds. On the night of the sinking, after helping with the evacuation efforts, she got into Lifeboat 6. Brown urged the boat’s crewman to go back for more people, something depicted in the 1997 film Titanic, but her pleas were rejected.
Once on the Carpathia, Brown helped the other survivors, giving out food and blankets, establishing a Survivor’s Committee, and raising money for those who’d lost everything. By the time the ship reached New York, word of her selfless actions had made her famous. “After being brined, salted and pickled in mid-ocean I am now high and dry,” she later wrote to her daughter. “I have had flowers, letters, telegrams, people until I am befuddled. They are petitioning Congress to give me a medal….If I must call a specialist to examine my head it is due to the title of Heroine of the Titanic.”
But Brown certainly didn’t let fame go to her head. She continued her activism for causes including women’s suffrage and workers’ rights, ran for Congress, and assisted with relief efforts in France during World War I, which earned her the French Legion of Honor. She also dabbled in acting before dying in 1932 at age 65.