Brown, Molly (1867–1932)

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Brown, Molly (1867–1932)

American philanthropist who survived the sinking of the Titanic and became known as known as the Unsinkable Molly Brown. Name variations: Margaret or Maggie Tobin Brown; Mrs. J.J. Brown; "The Unsinkable Molly Brown." Born Margaret Tobin in Hannibal, Missouri, in 1867; died after a stroke on October 26, 1932; briefly attended public school; married miner James J. Brown, 1886 (separated 1909, d. 1922); children: Lawrence and Helen.

Thirty years after her death in 1932, Molly Brown's legendary rags-to-riches story inspired a stage musical and a film, both entitled The Unsinkable Molly Brown. The play, with music and lyrics by Meredith Wilson, lasted over a year on Broadway despite lukewarm reviews. The movie, after a gala premier in Denver where Brown had made her mark, went on to a record-breaking opening at Radio City Music Hall and

won an Academy Award nomination for its spirited star, Debbie Reynolds . So great was the film's popularity that in 1965 the spacecraft Gemini 3 was called "Molly Brown" for luck. Though the capsule missed its return landing site by 60 miles, it bobbed without problems in heavy ocean waves until it was retrieved.

Born in a shanty in Hannibal, Missouri, in 1867, Margaret Tobin was the plucky daughter of a ditch digger. In 1884, then known as Maggie, she was struck with gold fever and followed her brother Daniel to Colorado, where she met and married James Brown, a mine foreman later known as "Leadville Johnny," and set up housekeeping in a tiny log cabin. The couple had two children and moved to larger quarters in Leadville, where James became superintendent and part owner of a silver mine called "Little Jonny." In 1894, Brown's dream of becoming rich came true when the mine yielded a vein of gold, a windfall worth $2.5 million. At Brown's insistence, the family moved to Denver, Colorado, where they built a mansion in one of the city's most upscale neighborhoods. Outgoing but lacking finesse, Brown was continually snubbed by Denver society who regarded her as uncouth and ignorant. But Brown was undaunted by their dismissals and set out to educate herself with private lessons in English, French, voice, speech, and etiquette. She would eventually master seven languages.

Making frequent trips to Europe, where she hobnobbed with artistic types and the occasional royal, Brown also established a home in fashionable Newport, Rhode Island, where she was finally welcomed among the Astors, Whitneys, and Vanderbilts. She changed her name to Molly in the process of her metamorphosis and distanced herself from her husband, who did not share her fierce desire for acceptance. (Striving for a happy ending, the musical glossed over the chasm that developed between them.)

Returning from Southampton to New York, having visited her daughter at a Paris finishing school, Molly Brown was aboard the ill-fated Titanic on its maiden voyage in 1912. Twenty-five minutes after the ship struck an iceberg on the evening of April 15, Molly fought to save as many people as possible, pleading with women to leave their husbands and enter the lifeboats. She was saved on the last lifeboat, No. 6 (capacity 65), and argued fiercely with Quartermaster Robert Hichens to return to the wreck site and pick up more survivors. Hichens refused, fearful that those in the water would swamp the boat. When Hichens dismissed the flare from an approaching ship as a "shooting star," Brown threatened to throw him overboard, took control of the boat, and taught the other women to row, all the while singing an Italian aria in a black velvet, two-piece suit. (The story that Brown took control with a pistol is apocryphal.) Upon the boat's rescue by the liner Carpathia, Brown reportedly took up a collection on board and raised $7,000 for the widows of the disaster. "How did you survive?" inquired a reporter who met the returning ship. "I'm unsinkable!" replied Molly. The adjective stuck, and she became a national hero.

Just as she was finally accepted by Denver's Sacred Thirty-Six, Molly abandoned society ratings and devoted her remaining years to charity work. She led an effort to preserve Eugene Field's house in Denver, helped create a Mark Twain Memorial in her hometown of Hannibal, Missouri, and aided children under jurisdiction of Denver's Juvenile Court. During World War I, she volunteered as an army nurse, going overseas at her own expense and entertaining in camps of American Expeditionary Forces. In Paris, she led in the rehabilitation of blinded soldiers for which she received a knighthood in Paris' Legion of Honor. Her later projects included a fund-raising campaign for a new wing of St. Joseph's Hospital in Denver and a relief effort for destitute wives and children of miners participating in the Ludlow, Colorado, coal strike.

James Brown died in 1922, leaving no will. After a court battle with her children over the division of money, Molly was awarded $100,000 annually. Her charity work continued up until her death at age 65. A 1930 article in Fortune magazine noted: "She is in a fair way to become the Lorenzo de Medici … of Denver…. She is accused of being a grandstander, but those who know her best insist it is unconscious. She is notably generous, and is guided in her philanthropies only by her emotions." Stories about her persisted long after her death. In March 1955, a news feature written by Mary Margaret McBride proclaimed: "Molly's life was like one of the old-fashioned movie serials … social ostracism … then triumphant return to her own country…. She remained the unsinkable."