Encyclopedia Titanica

COL. GRACIE DEAD

Washington Star

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Prominent Washington Survivor of Titanic Disaster

END IN NEW YORK HOSPITAL

Family Had Gone to Metropolis to Spend the Winter

DAUGHTER'S RECENT DEBUT

Lecture Delivered in This City Only About a Week Ago by the Deceased


Col. Archibald Gracie of Washington, D.C., one of the last passengers to leave the sinking Titanic, died here today in a private hospital. Col. Gracie went down with the vessel, but on coming to the surface found a life raft, on which he afterward helped others. His family is prominent in New York, Washington and Mobile, Ala.

WENT TO NEW YORK FOR WINTER

For the past five or six years, Col. and Mrs. Archibald Gracie maintained a residence at 1527 16th Street Northwest. Several weeks ago they closed up their home and went to New York, where their relatives live, to spend the winter. Thanksgiving day they gave a party at the Gotham Hotel there to formally present their daughter, Miss Edith Gracie, to their friends.

About a week ago Col. Gracie lectured before the University Club in this city on "The Truth About the Titanic Disaster." In this talk he contradicted many of the impressions the general public has received of the disaster. He asserted that the band aboard the ill-fated steamer did not play the hymn "Nearer My God to Thee," until the ship took its final plunge. He said that for a while the band did play some lively tunes, but no hymns. they had ceased playing long before the vessel sank, he said.

OF A WELL KNOWN SOUTHERN FAMILY

Col. Gracie came from a well known southern family. His father was a colonel in the Confederate Army. His own title of colonel came to him through his service in the New York National Guard. Col. Gracie leaves a wife and one daughter. Mrs. Gracie was formerly Miss Constance Schack.

Col. Gracie had written several books, including one entitled "The Truth About the Battle of Chickamauga." He was at work on a book dealing with the sinking of the Titanic at the time of his death.

Several years ago a daughter of Col. and Mrs. Gracie was killed in an elevator accident in Paris. She was eleven years old.

MANUSCRIPT LOST WITH THE TITANIC

Col. Gracie had said his most serious loss in connection with the sinking of the Titanic was that of the manuscript of an article on the war of 1812, which he had spent a long time in preparing.

It was his intention to return to England to duplicate the data which he lost when the Titanic went down. His trip abroad on that occasion had been to gather this information.

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Encyclopedia Titanica (2003) COL. GRACIE DEAD (Washington Star, Wednesday 4th December 1912, ref: #279, published 28 August 2003, generated 29th November 2024 07:31:53 PM); URL : https://www.encyclopedia-titanica.org/col-gracie-dead.html