Eleanor, her brother; Harold, and her mother; Alice were in Finland visiting her mother's dying father. They were on their way back to the U.S. The three stopped in England only to find out their tickets on the ship to take them back to America had been canceled beacause of a coal miner's strike. They soon learned that the RMS Titanic had room for more passengers. They, along with two teenage Swedish girls got on a train to Southampton and got third class tickets on the ship just an hour before its launching.

After the Titanic hit the iceberg Eleanors mother and the two Swedish girls went out to kick the ice around deck with other steerage passengers until an officer told them to get back in their cabins because the ship would be starting up again shortly. Later on a steward, who had become fond of the group, led them up to Boat Deck. Eleanor's mother held her in her arms as she was helped into a lifeboat then one of the Swedish girls lowered Harold down to her, that was the last they saw of that Swedish girl, she went down with the ship. The other one survived. They were on the last lifeboat to leave the Titanic.

In later years she bacame an Employee at the Elgin Watch Company then she became a telephone operator until retiring in 1962.

She married a man by the name of Delbert Shuman and they had one son, Earl.