Last Titanic survivor dies in port where liner set sail (News Feature)

By Anna Tomforde Jun 1, 2009, 12:01 GMT

London - The last survivor of the Titanic, who at the time of the sinking was so small she had to be rescued in a sack, has died in Southampton, the port from where the liner set sail for its fateful journey in 1912.

'I was too small to be put in a lifebelt, so they put me in a sack and lowered me into a lifeboat with my mother,' Dean, who died in Southampton, aged 97, Sunday, recalled in a BBC interview last year.

At nine weeks old, she was the youngest passenger on the ship when it sank after striking an iceberg on April 14, 1912. On the journey home, passengers would queue to hold her, marvelling at the wonder of her - and their - escape.

On that fateful night, her father, who had hoped to start a new life as a tobacconist in Kansas, felt the crunch of the ship's collision and went on deck to investigate.

'I envisaged that's what saved us. We were third class passengers and a lot of the third class children were not saved,' Dean recalled.

After making sure that his wife, baby daughter and her two-year-old brother, Bert, were among the first of the 706 passengers rescued from the liner, he remained behind and was among the 1,517 victims to be drowned.

The Deans had not chosen to be on the Titanic, but were transferred to the ship because of a coal strike.

'I believe in fate - we weren't supposed to be on the Titanic at all, we were supposed to go on an American ship,' Dean said in interviews.

The family returned to the British port of Southampton, where Dean, who never married, spent most of her life, and where a street is named after her.

She died from pneumonia after being taken to hospital from a nursing home in the city last week.

Dean was eight when her mother told her that she had been on the Titanic and that is was there where her father died.

Despite having no memories of the disaster, Dean was clear that the story of the Titanic shaped and defined her life.

'In 1985, when the wreck of the Titanic was found, I suddenly became a celebrity,' she said, admitting that she never tired of the attention.

'I like it, because everyone makes such a fuss of me,' she once said.

'The Titanic altered my life. If it hadn't been for the ship going down, I'd be an American leading an ordinary American life.'

The Titanic had created a great opportunity in her life. 'I've stayed in the best hotels and met so many awfully nice people,' she said.

In 1997, Dean sailed to America on the QE2 to retrace - and complete - her family's ill-fated journey.

But she said she could not understand divers going down to investigate the wreck, some 3,000 metres below the water's surface.

'I don't believe in people going to see it. I think it's morbid. I think it's horrible,' she said.

Dean also turned down the chance to see the premiere of the 1997 Oscar-winning film Titanic, which she thought would be too upsetting because of her father's death.

'I'd wonder what happened to him - would he jump overboard? I'd be letting my imagination run right away with me, thinking what he would do,' she said.

It was only last month that Titanic stars Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio, joined by director James Cameron, donated 30,000 dollars to help Dean cover her nursing home fees.

Before then, struggling to pay the 4,800-dollar monthly fees, and worried that she might lose her room, Dean had sold of Titanic-related mementoes.

Among the most precious items was a canvas bag from her rescue and a suitcase filled with clothes given to her family when they arrived in America - both were returned to her by the buyer.

'I'm the type of person who takes everything as it comes,' said Dean, asked what it had been like to live her life in the shadow of arguably the most famous sea disaster.