Helen Margaret Bishop (born Walton) was a daughter of a successful business man and a First Class passenger on Titanic.
She was conceived on Thursday May 19th, 1892 in Sturgis, Michigan, United States. Her parents were Jerrold Franklyn and Anne Walton (neé Patton).
She was a very pretty lady at 19 years old. Helen married widower Dickinson H. Bishop on November 7th, 1911 in Sturgis, Michigan. For their honeymoon they decided to travel to Europe and North Africa. They travelled to Europe aboard the White Star Liner RMS Adriatic.
Titanic[]
They decided to return to their home to Dowagiac, Michigan, by joining the Maiden Voyage of White Star Line's new RMS Titanic. By the time she boarded Titanic Helen was pregnant. During their trip, they also had acquired a dog named Freu Freu while traveling in Italy. She was bewildered by this dog, Her man 'Dick' not so much. Helen with Freu Freu and her husband Dickinson H. Bishop from Dowagiac, Michigan, USA, boarded the Titanic at Cherbourg. They occupied cabin B-49.
On the night of April 14 Helen had already retired to bed and Dick was reading in their stateroom when the Titanic struck the iceberg. Helen reported that she did not hear or feel any shock. Helen Bishop also stated that when they went on deck, someone said the newly married couples should be put into the lifeboat first and that there were three newlywed couples in their boat. However, this was not mentioned during her later testimony at the US Inquiry into the disaster. At the inquiry, Helen Bishop also recalled seeing John Jacob Astor IV urging them to put their lifebelts on and board a boat. An officer took Mrs. Bishop by the arm and told her to quietly get into the lifeboat; after that, her husband was pushed into the boat with her. Helen Bishop said there were 12 women, 13 men and three crew members in the lifeboat and many of the men in the boat were not married. The couple boarded lifeboat 7.
Dickinson dealt with the press in New York after their arrival, and gave willingly his account on the disaster. Many articles would follow.
Later life[]
The couple was struck with ill luck in their life, and they had to endure a lot. One intense occurrence after another disrupted their peace. There was once an earthquake they had to sit through. On Sunday December 8th, 1912, Helen gave birth to their baby son, Randall Walton Bishop. Sadly, he died just two days after he was born.
On November 5, 1914, Helen tragically suffered from a serious car accident in which she was badly injured, in a car driven by her husband's cousin Bartlett Dickinson, when they returned from a dance party. He lost control speeding with an iced-up windshield. The car hit a tree and Helen was thrown 25 feet from the car, fracturing her skull. Her injuries were so bad that, the next day, the 'New York Times' reported that she was dying. Dickinson only suffered minor injuries. In an attempt to save Helen's life, her doctors tried what was then a new technique: a silver plate was affixed to her skull to cover the badly injured area.
Although she recovered somewhat, it is said that the accident changed her mentally. In January 1916, Dickinson and Helen divorced. There were once rumors that Mr. Bishop had dressed as a woman and that this gossip had affected Helen. Charging her husband with cruelty and drunkenness, Helen Bishop was granted a divorce and $100,000 in alimony. She died two months later, on March 16, after falling at a friend's home on a visit to Danville, Illinois. The big car accident certainly hadn't helped, she might have survived this fall without it.
Her death was front page news, along with the new marriage between Dickinson Bishop and Sydney Boyce.