Margaret "Molly" Brown
| Margaret Brown | |
|---|---|
Brown in 1909
|
|
| Born |
Margaret Tobin July 18, 1867 Hannibal, Missouri, U.S. |
| Died | October 26, 1932 (aged 65) Barbizon Hotel, New York City, New York, U.S. |
| Resting place | Cemetery of the Holy Rood, Westbury, New York, U.S. |
| Residence | Denver, Colorado, U.S. |
| Other names | Maggie Brown, The Unsinkable Molly Brown, Margaret Tobin Brown, Mrs. James J. Brown |
| Occupation | Socialite |
| Known for | RMS Titanic survivor |
| Home town | Hannibal, Missouri, U.S. |
| Salary | $700/month (1909; $18,659 today) |
| Net worth | $238,000 (1922; $3,405,340 today) |
| Spouse(s) | James Joseph Brown (m. 1886; separated 1909) |
| Children | 2 |
| Parent(s) | John Tobin Johanna Collins |
| Relatives |
Katherine Benziger (great-granddaughter) |
Margaret "Maggie" Brown (née Tobin) (July 18, 1867 – October 26, 1932) (posthumously known as "The Unsinkable Molly Brown") was an American socialite and philanthropist. She is best remembered for exhorting the crew in Lifeboat No. 6 to return to the debris field of the 1912 sinking of RMS Titanic to look for survivors. Accounts differ on whether the boat actually returned to look for survivors, and if so, if any survivors were found. During her lifetime, her friends called her "Maggie", but even by her death, obituaries referred to her as the "Unsinkable Mrs. Brown". The reference was further reinforced by a 1960 Broadway musical based on her life and its 1964 film adaptation which were both entitled The Unsinkable Molly Brown.
Margaret Tobin was born in a two-room cottage, near the Mississippi River in Hannibal, Missouri, on what is now known as Denkler's alley. Her parents were Irish Catholic immigrants John Tobin (1823–1899) and Johanna Tobin (née Collins; 1825–1905); her siblings were Daniel Tobin (born 1863), Michael Tobin (born 1866), William Tobin (born 1869), and Helen Tobin (born 1871). Brown also had two half-sisters: Catherine Bridget Tobin (born 1856), by her father's first marriage, and Mary Ann Collins (born 1857), by her mother's first marriage. Both of Margaret's parents had been widowed young.
At age 18, Margaret relocated to Leadville, Colorado, with her siblings Daniel Tobin, Mary Ann Collins Landrigan, and Mary Ann's husband John Landrigan; Margaret and her brother Daniel shared a two-room log cabin, and she found a job in a department store. In Leadville, she met and married James Joseph Brown (1854–1922), nicknamed "J.J.", an enterprising, self-educated man. He wasn't a rich man, but she married J.J. for love. She said,
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