Miss Mary Davis
Miss Mary Davis, 28, was born in London on 18 May 1883. She lived at 29 Fleet Lane, Newgate Street, London. Mary was travelling to visit her sister Mrs E. F. Langford of Tottenville, Staten Island, New York. She saved money for the voyage by working as a 'between maid' and vegetable cook in the London home of a 'titled lady,' Mary recalled that the house had 22 servants and an Italian cook with whom she did not get on well. Mary boarded the Titanic at Southampton as a second class passenger. She shared a cabin with Lucy Ridsdale. Miss Davis was asleep in her cabin when the collision occurred. She was awakened and told that there was no danger; so she returned to bed, only to be called again in a few minutes and told to get up on the highest deck, that the boat was sinking. She hurriedly dressed and then helped Lucy an "older lame nurse" who was in the lower berth to get dressed; she was afflicted by a club foot. The two women then made their way to the boatdeck. Two men assisted her into lifeboat 13 and it was lowered. She remembered that the weather was clear, water calm, and a beautiful full moon lit the entire ocean for miles around. She stated that there was very little suction as the boat sank. Miss Davis said that it was early in the morning when the Carpathia hove in sight and pulled them aboard. She was numbed from the waist down and practically unconscious from exhaustion and cold. After surviving the sinking, Mary was met in New York by her sister and brother-in-law; she was hurried to her sister's home and was placed under the care of a physician. She returned to England a few months later when the White Star Line offered her a free fare. She decided to return to the United States before the end of 1913, again working as a cook. She was married in 1915 to painter and decorator John A. Wilburn, by whom she had an only son, Carl Wilburn. John A. Wilburn was born January 31, 1891 and died in April of 1972 in Syracuse. Carl Wilburn was born July 16, 1915 and died November 9, 1994, also in Syracuse. When Mary Davis Wilburn died at Loretto Geriatric Centre, Syracuse, New York on July 29, 1987, she was 104 years, 2 months, and 11 days old, and had lived to be older than any other Titanic survivor-and had lived long enough to see the wreck of the Titanic when it was located in 1985.
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Philip Hind (Editor)
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