"UNSINKABLE" MOLLY BROWN

"Unsinkable Molly Brown- A Rags To Riches Story of a Titanic Survivor"-Born Margaret Tobin Brown to poor Irish immigrants in Hannibal Missouri in 1867, "Maggie" Brown worked stripping tobacco leaves to support her family until the age of 18, when she moved with her sister to Leadville, Colorado to help establish a blacksmith shop. There she met James Joseph (J.J.) Brown, a miner who was also a son of Irish immigrants. Brown strucj it rich when he figured a way to extract silver from the mine's leavings and soon became one of the wealthiest men in the country. They moved to Denver and built a mansion, complete with all the trappings, but when Maggie went through all the motions required to claim her place in society, Denver wanted no part of this nouveau rich, or so the story goes. Determined to correct her lack of education and polish, she read all the best books, hired tutors, and toured Europe several times, becoming proficient in several languages, establishing a reputation as a witty raconteur, and becoming  friends with the Vanderbilts, Whitneys, and Astors, whom she met on her tours. It was on one such tour, headed home to Denver wit loads of crates filled with valuables intended for the Denver Museum, that Maggie boarded the Titanic on her maiden voyage from Cherbourg to New York. Fate intervened, and the Titanic sunk after hitting an iceburg, killing more than one thousand persons, and Maggie, through her bravery and efforts to help the survivors, was to become a national symbol. In subsequent years, through her efforts, she became a tireless advocate for those in need, from the battlefields of France to Women's Suffrage movements in America. A stageplay and movie were created in the name that she had never actually used- "Molly" Brown. Kristen Iverson (1999) Molly Brown: Unraveling the Myth, Johnson Books, Boulder CO Various newspaper Accounts from the period          

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