Last Titanic Survivor Dead at 97

The last Titanic survivor has died at age 97, with no memory of the disaster but pleased by the attention it brought her, the BBC reports. Millvina Dean was 9 weeks old when the ship sank in 1912 and claimed her father's life, but spared her mother and brother. The Deans abandoned plans to move to America and returned to Southampton. "If it hadn't been for the ship going down, I'd be an American,” Dean liked to say.

She struggled with poverty late in life and was forced to auction some Titanic memorabilia. Titanic stars Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio, and director James Cameron, donated funds to help pay for her nearly $5,000 monthly care home bill. Despite her hardships, Dean enjoyed telling her story. “I like it, because everyone makes such a fuss of me!” she said.
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