Edith L. Russell, survivor of the Titanic disaster, died last night in a London hospital. She was 98-years old.
Miss Russell, a writer, died 10 days before the 63rd anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic. The great liner was holed on its maiden voyage by a giant iceberg in the North Atlantic and went down with the loss of 1,513 lives. There were 711 survivors, only a few of whom are still alive.
Miss Russell told The Associated Press in an interview three years ago that she was the next-to-last of the survivors to leave the sinking liner.
She said that a stuffed pig with a built-in music box, which had been given to her for good luck after she survived a car crash in France, saved her from the sea disaster.
"When the Titanic was sinking and they were getting us into the lifeboats, I couldn't jump in because I was too nervous," she recalled. "I was clutching the pig. A sailor threw it into the lifeboat and I said, 'That does it. I'm going after it.' Then I was able to jump."
Miss Russell still had the stuffed pig when she died. "People come from all over the world to touch it for good luck." she said.
Miss Russell was the only child of a wealthy Cincinnati merchant and led an adventuous life as a traveler, Paris fashion writer and World War I correspondent.
"I'm accident-prone." she said. "I've been in shipwrecks, car crashes, fires floods and tornadoes. I've had every disaster but bubonic plague and a husband."
LONDON, April 5 (AP)
