Eleanor Ileen Johnson Shuman (August 23rd, 1910 - March 10th, 1998) was one of the last remaining survivors of the sinking of the RMS Titanic on April 15, 1912.
Early life[]
Eleanor Ileen Johnson was born on August 23 in St. Charles, Illinois to newspaper editor Oskar Walter Johnson and his wife, the Finnish Alina Wilhelmina Backberg (1885 - 1968). She had an older brother, Harold Theodor (1908 - 1968). Her mother Alina was often referred to as Alice.
In early 1912, Alice and her two children had been in Finland visiting Alice's dying father. The Johnsons bought Third Class tickets to return to Illinois and travelled with Elin Braf and Helmina Nilson, two Swedes they met in Ramkvilla when mother Alice had visited Oskar's parents.
When the three arrived back in England, they were informed at the last minute, on the Southampton docks, that due to a coal strike, the ship they were supposed to sail on had cancelled its trip. There was enough space on another ship, that they could be transferred to.
Aboard the Titanic[]
Eighteen-month-old Eleanor boarded the Titanic along with her mother and brother as Third Class passengers on April 10th, 1912 at Southampton. The Johnsons shared a cabin with Elin Braf and Helmina Nilson.
Shortly after the Titanic struck the iceberg at 11:40 P.M. on April 14th, Alice and Helmina went out on deck and kicked around pieces of ice that had fallen off the iceberg until an officer told them to get back in their cabins as the ship would be on its way soon. Not long after, a steward who had been a waiter for the Johnson family in the Dining Room and took a liking to them, knocked on their door and, with a group of fellow Swedes, escorted them to the Boat Deck. Eleanor remembers that there was hardly time to get properly dressed. It all went in a hurry.
They were guided to lifeboat 15. Alice was helped into the boat with Eleanor in her arms and called up to Braf to get into the boat with Harold. A Backberg family myth tells us that Eleanor was lowerd in a bag. Braf remained frozen on deck, so a crew member took Harold from her arms and tossed him into the boat, leaving Braf behind, despite Mrs. Johnson's calls to her. Braf would perish in the sinking, although Helmina Nilsson did escape the ship, possibly in lifeboat 13.
Alice and her children were picked up by the rescue ship RMS Carpathia and arrived in New York City, New York on April 18th, 1912.
Eleanor admitted that she remembered very little about the night the Titanic sank, but she insisted that she recalled the screams of passengers and the sight of hands reaching up to her from a lifeboat below (this was the near-disaster of lifeboat 13 almost getting crushed by lifeboat 15, the boat she was in).
Later life[]
In 1934, Eleanor married Delbert Shuman, an International Harvester engineer, and had a son, Earl and a sister Lucy. The couple moved to Elgin, Illinois and were married for 47 years before Delbert died in 1981.
In 1958, Eleanor, her mother and her brother Harold attended the New York City premiere of 'A Night to Remember.'
Eleanor worked for the Elgin Watch Company, and later as a telephone operator until her retirement in 1962.
Modern life[]
In 1994, Eleanor visited her son in Florida, and it was the first time she saw the Atlantic Ocean since 1912.
Into her 80s, Eleanor remained active in Titanic-related activities. In August 1996, Eleanor joined fellow Titanic survivors, Michel Navratil and Edith Brown, on an expedition cruise to the site of Titanic's wreck. Eleanor was the only survivor that director James Cameron met while filming 'Titanic', and as such, received royal treatment. She and Michel Navratil were also the only two survivors to ever see the movie. She saw the movie three times, including at a special screening with movie critics Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert, and she enjoyed it very much. Eleanor became an instant celebrity after the movie's release and she had to change her telephone number to an unlisted one after receiving several phone calls every day from people who hoped to speak with her. She died in Elgin at the age of 87. Her death left five remaining Titanic survivors.