Helen Winkler

Helen Winkler was born in Kraków, Austria-Hungary (part of modern-day Poland) on 22 October 1872.¹ Hailing from a German-speaking Jewish family, she was the daughter of Simon Marcus Winkler, a chemicals manufacturer, and Matilda, née Greiner. She had three elder siblings, two brothers and one sister: Alexander, Max and Selma.

Around 1877 she, her mother and siblings relocated to the USA, settling in Cincinnati, Ohio where her father had emigrated to a few years previous; the family later became US citizens around 1883.

Helen spent much of her life in Cincinnati; her mother died in 1904 and by 1910 she lived with her widowed father at Lenox Place in the city. Helen’s father died later the same year and by 1912 she was living between Cincinnati and New York. 

Already a seasoned traveller, Helen was aboard the Carpathia as a first-class passenger with her maternal-cousin Sadie Horwitz when that ship rescued the survivors of the Titanic disaster. 

Miss Winkler never married and continued to travel; by 1930 she was living alone at East 97th Street, Manhattan and was described as a “social investigator.” She died on 22 November 1947 and was buried with her family in Walnut Hills Jewish Cemetery in Evanston, Ohio.