Sunday, May 6, 2012

Escaping from the Titanic in High Heels

Edith Russell, a reporter for Women's Wear Daily, was dressed in the height of fashion when the Titanic hit an iceberg.  The hobble skirt of her white satiu evening dress and her backless, high-heeled, apricot satin pumps didn't help her to hurry up on deck when she felt a nasty jolt and saw an iceberg gliding past her window!

The 33 year old, who came from a wealthy Jewish family in Cincinnati,  had completed a series of articles about Paris fashions and decided to travel back to New York on the great ship.  She wrote to a friend that the ship was wonderful with every luxury which she could ever want but she had a 'feeling of depression and a premonition of trouble'.  She neglected to insure her many trunks of fashions and other belongings, however, because she was told that the ship was 'unsinkable'.

Always practical, when Edith felt a slight jolt and a second one which was nastier she did decide to put a warm cape on.  She also decided to ask the steward to fetch her her furry toy pig.  She regarded this toy pig, which played a tune called a 'maxixe', as her lucky pig.  It had been given to her after she survived a dreadful car crash in France.  She credited the pig with saving her life.

Edith was one of the last women to be saved but she was almost too scared to jump into a lifeboat.  When a steward threw her beloved toy pig into the lifeboat, the intrepid journalist decided to make the leap.  She had to go after her pet pig!

Titanic Survivors

Edith Russell's Life After The Titanic

Edith continued her reporting career after she survived.  She became a war correspondent in Word War One, even reporting from the trenches.

She also survived many other disasters.  These even included another shipwreck as well as a hurricane!  Edith remarked that: 'I've had every disaster but bubonic plague and a husband!'

Edith Russell died at 98 in London in 1975 10 days before the 63rd anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic.

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