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“Hi Debbie! I will be telling you about the last 20 remaining survivors of the sinking of the Titanic on 15 April 1912. I will do one survivor each day. The Last 20 Survivors of the Titanic Ruth Becker Blanchard Early life Ruth Elizabeth Becker was born October 28, 1899 in Guntur, India. Her parents, Allen (1872-1956) and Nellie Baumgardner (1876-1961) Becker were from Ohio in the US, where they married before they shortly settled in India as missionaries. In 1905, the Beckers returned to Ohio where Nellie gave birth to another son, Luther. In 1907, the Beckers returned to India for another six year mission where they all became very sick. Luther tragically passed away that year at the age of two but the rest of the family survived. Later that year, Nellie gave birth to another daughter, Marion Louise. In 1910, Nellie gave birth to a son, Richard. Titanic In February 1912, Richard contracted an illness, and his parents decided they wouldn’t be taking another chance. Nellie decided she would take nineteen-month-old Richard to Allen’s hometown of Benton Harbor, Michigan in America for better treatment, and twelve-year-old Ruth and four-year-old Marion would go with them. Allen decided to stay behind and finish his mission. The Beckers boarded the SS City of Benares on March 7 at Madras, India. They sailed up through the Red Sea, through the Suez Canal, up through the Mediterranean, and landed in London on April 5. Nellie took the kids sight-seeing just in case they never made it to London again. On April 10, Nellie, Ruth, Marion and Richard set sail on Titanic as second-class passengers. Nellie was later quoted as saying, “I am not one bit happy about going on the maiden voyage of a ship!” The workers assured her that the Titanic could stay afloat if anything did happen, however she still felt uneasy. Ruth immediately began exploring the ship, noticing the men were still painting—and thought the ship may not have been finished. She saw the beautiful new dining room and admired the beauty of the sparkling silverware and linen. To pass the time for the voyage, she would wheel her toddler brother Richard around the deck in his stroller. On the night of the collision, the Beckers were asleep. They were located above the ship’s engines and had become so used to the vibrations. They were awoken by the ceasing of them. Nellie immediately woke up and asked a steward, “What’s the matter? Why have we stopped in the middle of the ocean?” The officer said, “No, there’s nothing wrong at all—we’ve just had a little accident and we will be going on in a few minutes!” Nellie went back to bed but heard lots of noise. She got up again and the steward was waiting outside their door holding a lifebelt. “Madam, you have time for nothing; come at once,” he told her. She and Ruth helped dress Marion and Richard. Two officers came, one carrying Marion and one carrying Richard. They reached a room at the top deck where they waited for more direction. When they finally got outside, Ruth counted five distress rockets. Because it was so cold, Nellie sent Ruth back down to the cabin to fetch some blankets. When Ruth returned, she saw Marion and Richard being tossed into lifeboat number 11. The officer standing nearby then said, “That’s all for this boat!” Nellie screamed and yelled, “No! Those are my children! Oh, please! Let me go with them!” The officer got annoyed and pushed her into the boat. Boat 11 was so crowded that Nellie had to stand. Ruth was still left on the deck holding blankets. As Nellie’s boat was being lowered, she called to Ruth! “Get in the next lifeboat!” Ruth walked down to lifeboat number 13. She saw an officer putting people in. She asked the officer, “May I get in?” The officer said, “Oh sure!” and he quite literally picked her up and dumped her in. That whole time, Ruth didn’t even think the ship was sinking, but rather they were taking everyone off the ship to fix the issue. Ruth had to stand as boat 13 was extremely crowded. The boat rocked back and forth as it was lowered. Boat 15 almost crushed them as it lowered, until an officer finally cut the ropes apart from boat 13. As Ruth’s boat rowed away from the ship, she saw the ship from a distance and saw the people screaming and yelling for help and jumping into the water. The wheels started turning in her head and she began to realize the ship was sinking. She passed out her blankets in the lifeboat to those who were most cold. She saw the lights growing dim on the ship. Then, Ruth and everyone else in the lifeboats watched the ship split in half and watching it sink, at 2:20 am on April 15, 1912! She recalled the terrible sounds of people drowning, and felt so sorry as there was no room for anyone else in her lifeboat. As the Carpathia arrived two hours after the ship sank at 4:30 am, Ruth’s lifeboat was one of the first to be picked up. She was put into a sack as she was too numb to move, and hoisted onto the ship. After all the passengers from all the lifeboats were picked up, Ruth hunted the decks for hours for her family. A woman came to her and asked if her name was Ruth Becker, and upon confirmation the woman said her mother had been looking everywhere for her. Ruth reunited with her mother and saw that her family was ok! Upon arrival in New York, Nellie told Ruth not to tell anyone they were Titanic survivors as she didn’t want the sympathy. However, on the train a woman came to them and realized they were survivors and began to sympathize. Nellie was polite to the woman, but turned to Ruth privately and scolded her, which was confusing as Ruth did not say anything! They finally arrived in Benton Harbor, Michigan, where Richard was cured of his illness. A friend of their family’s cabled Allen Becker and told him his wife and children were saved. Allen reunited with his family in America and they moved to Worcester, Ohio. Allen continued to be a minister. Later life Ruth graduated from high school in 1918 and then went to college to become a grade school teacher. She married Daniel Blanchard and they had three children and divorced him after 23 years of marriage. Because of Nellie’s PTSD, she cried whenever Titanic was brought up. She became completely estranged from Marion for reasons that aren’t certain, and when Marion died in 1944 at the age of 36, Nellie refused to go to her funeral! Her relationship with Ruth became strained, and Nellie’s Will said that Richard would get everything from his mother and Ruth was to make sure it happened. Allen died in 1956 at the age of 83, Nellie died in 1961 at the age of 84, and Richard died in 1975 at the age of 65. Ruth moved out to Santa Barbara, California following her retirement. As her mother had told her not to discuss Titanic, it was difficult to get her to grant interviews. When she began to grant interviews in the 1980s, she sat and thought about the details since she had not granted interviews. In 1982, she went to a Titanic convention for the 70th anniversary. Several other survivors attended including Ruth. While at the panel, she began to speak about the ship breaking in half. The ship had not yet been found and therefore nobody knew it had broken in half as a worker said in 1912 it sank in one piece. A representative of the Titanic Historical Society stood up and told her the ship sank in one piece. Ruth said, “Well, that’s what it looked like to me!” as if to say ‘I was there, you weren’t!’. She was certain the ship broke in half. In 1985, Ruth watched the 1958 film A Night to Remember with Titanic historians and would casually comment about what details lined up with her memory and which ones didn’t. She attended the 1987 and 1988 Titanic conventions. In March 1990, she went on a cruise with her daughter. During the lifeboat drill, Ruth commented, “We didn’t do this on the Titanic!” People began to turn around and realized there was a Titanic survivor on board. Ruth originally neglected the fame from the other passengers but eventually felt comfortable speaking to the others. Shirley Jones, the singer, was on board and sang for Ruth! Ruth died of malnutrition and dehydration on July 6, 1990 at the age of 90. Her death left 19 remaining survivors. She was the last survivor born in India. “
“Hi Debbie! I thank you 1000 percent for nominating me mermaid queen! Do you know when the first mini mermaid tales book is going to come out? Or did it already come out? Love, Kayla “
“My friend Bryan called me an idiot!”
“how are you :/ im fine”
“dear Debbie Dadey, I know i haven’t talked to you in a while but i’m talking now. When i read bailey school kids witches don’t wear polka dots I was a little disappointed. The book for my taste was a little short and i would have liked to know what hapenenned to the boy in the end.”
“I mean vampires don’t wear polka dots, sorry.”
“dear Debbie Dadey, I know i haven’t talked to you in a while but i’m talking now. When i read bailey school kids witches don’t wear polka dots I was a little disappointed. The book for my taste was a little short and i would have liked to know what hapenenned to the boy in the end.”
“Someone in my class said “Joe mama so fat” and I cried”
“I like your books a lot keep it up good job”
“How is it like being a famos athar and i like your books. “