MRS. DEAN MATHEY, TITANIC SURVIVOR, 72

Special to The New York Times
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PRINCETON, N. J., Sept. 7---Mrs. Helen Newsom Mathey, a survivor of the liner Titanic, sunk in 1912 by an iceberg in the Atlantic Ocean, with the loss of more than 1,500 lives, died today in Princeton Hospital. Her age was 72 and she lived on Great Road here.

She was the wife of Dean Mathey, chairman of the executive committee of the Empire Trust Company, New York City.

Mrs. Mathey was born in Columbus, Ohio. She was graduated from the Briarcliff Manor (N. Y.) School.

When the Titanic was sunk, she shared a lifeboat with a young friend, Karl H. Behr. They were married the next year.

Mr. Behr, who died in 1949, was a vice president of Dillon, Read & Co., investment bankers. Later she was married to Mr. Mathey, an old friend of her first husband.

Surviving, besides her husband, are three sons, Karl H., Peter H. and James H. Behr, and a daughter, Mrs. Samuel Pettit, all by her first marriage, and 13 grandchildren.