Todd Pribble

Margaret "Molly" (or "Maggie") Brown, born July 18th, 1867 and died October 26th, 1932, receiving an award for her efforts to save the other passengers of the RMS Titanic.

Molly Brown was a wealthy philanthropist and socialite who was aboard the RMS Titanic when it sank in 1912. She was fortunate (read: wealthy) enough to get aboard one of the only 20 lifeboats prior to the ship sinking. However, unlike so many other survivors, Molly Brown urged the crew of Lifeboat No. 6 to return to the wreckage to pick up drowning passengers.

Molly Brown, known to her friends as "Maggie", came from hard working roots. Her parents were Irish immigrants and she moved to Colorado when she was a teenager, where she worked in a store. It was there that she met and married her husband, J.J. Brown. This is what she said of their meeting:

"I wanted a rich man, but I loved Jim Brown. I thought about how I wanted comfort for my father and how I had determined to stay single until a man presented himself who could give to the tired old man the things I longed for him. Jim was as poor as we were, and had no better chance in life. I struggled hard with myself in those days. I loved Jim, but he was poor. Finally, I decided that I'd be better off with a poor man whom I loved than with a wealthy one whose money had attracted me. So I married Jim Brown."

After Jim discovered a rich vein of silver, the family became wealthy - fulfilling her dreams of marrying a rich man and enabling her to carry out her many acts of philanthropy.