So close to home
I just made a startling discovery thanks to the latest issue of the Titanic Commutator (Volume 33, Number 187), the official magazine of The Titanic Historical Society.
The issue carries a lengthy farewell to Millvina Dean, the last remaining Titanic survivor until her death on May 31, 2009. I always knew that Millvina's family boarded Titanic with the intention of emigrating to Kansas City, where her father was planning to open a tobacco shop.
What I did NOT know was that the house they intended to live in is located only a few blocks from my house in midtown Kansas City. To think all this time I thought I'd have to travel to New York, England or Ireland to be close to Titanic history. And here part of her story has been under my nose all this time.
Page 137 of the magazine shows a picture of Millvina in front of the house when she visited Kansas City in the late 1990s to see what would have been her home, located at 3659 Harrison Street. The caption incorrectly places the house in Kansas City, Kansas - when in fact it is in the heart of Kansas City, Missouri.
The house (marked with the A on the map) is on Harrison St. - just blocks east and a block north of my house on Charlotte (marked with the X on the map).
The house has changed little since Millvina's visit, and I wonder as I have driven past it several times in the last month if the current residents know the history of the house as it relates to Millvina and the Titanic. I wrote them a letter today and enclosed a copy of the picture from the Commutator. I wonder what the story will mean to them? Will it come as a surprise to find themselves in the midst of such history?
It certainly came as a surprise to me.
The issue carries a lengthy farewell to Millvina Dean, the last remaining Titanic survivor until her death on May 31, 2009. I always knew that Millvina's family boarded Titanic with the intention of emigrating to Kansas City, where her father was planning to open a tobacco shop.
What I did NOT know was that the house they intended to live in is located only a few blocks from my house in midtown Kansas City. To think all this time I thought I'd have to travel to New York, England or Ireland to be close to Titanic history. And here part of her story has been under my nose all this time.
Page 137 of the magazine shows a picture of Millvina in front of the house when she visited Kansas City in the late 1990s to see what would have been her home, located at 3659 Harrison Street. The caption incorrectly places the house in Kansas City, Kansas - when in fact it is in the heart of Kansas City, Missouri.
The house (marked with the A on the map) is on Harrison St. - just blocks east and a block north of my house on Charlotte (marked with the X on the map).
The house has changed little since Millvina's visit, and I wonder as I have driven past it several times in the last month if the current residents know the history of the house as it relates to Millvina and the Titanic. I wrote them a letter today and enclosed a copy of the picture from the Commutator. I wonder what the story will mean to them? Will it come as a surprise to find themselves in the midst of such history?
It certainly came as a surprise to me.
posted by Oscar Watcher | 3:48 PM
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