The local celebrity from Milje, Yugoslavia, is at 621 E. 140th Street, with her brother, Frank Karun, and his wife.
They never tire of hearing from Mrs. Manca Yuvan who is visiting them for a couple of months, how she was one of the 700 survivors of the Titanic disaster of April, 1912, when she was five. The ship, advertised as unsinkable, was on her maiden voyage from England to New York. She struck an iceberg and sank. More than 1,000 died.
The newspapers in the region in Slovenia where Mrs. Yuvan lives interview her annually and once her picture appeared in a book.
Mrs. Yuvan speaks no English. She has been in Detroit visiting a sister. Then she came to Cleveland.
In 1912 she was traveling to the United States with her father and uncle. Her folks had gone to Galesburg, Ill.
The uncle went down with the ship. After swimming for two hours in the icy Atlantic, Mrs. Yuvan's father was hauled into an already jammed lifeboat and joined her.
Later the family returned to the old country. Then the brother settle here (Cleveland) and the sister in Detroit.
What does Mrs. Yuvan find intriguing about the United States?
"Valentines," she said in Slovenian that her brother translated, "and the many cars, the beautiful department stores and the telephones."
As she is fearful about flying, she made the trip by ship. Did it bring back horrible memories?
"Oh, no," she replied, "it was like a lovely dream."
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