Imanita Parrish Shelley
Imanita Parrish Shelley was as Second Class Passenger who had a awful trip aboard Titanic, so bad in fact, that she was more upset about the voyage itself than the catastrophe that followed. She had bitter complaints about the unfinished business aboard the ship.
Biography[]
Imanita Parrish was born on 2 July 1886, in Lexington, Kentucky She was nicknamed Mamie. Her mother was Lucinda Davis Parrish, a native of Lexington. Her father was Samuel Edward Parrish.
She was married to William H. Shelley (b. circa 1876), in Salt Lake City, Utah on 28 June 1909. After she had grown up, she and her mother would travel everywhere they pleased, in the States but also around the globe. In February 1912 they had visited England and wanted to return.
Mrs. Shelley and her mother had booked a Second Class Cabin on the new White Star Liner. They boarded in Southampton. A steward guided them to their cabin, but discovered to her dismay that the room was only half finished and wasn't entirely furnished. She and her mother discovered lots of unfinished business in the Second Class. Her cabin was too cramped and too cold, and only half-furnished. She felt like she had been brought into a coolcell. She had no space to open her trunk, if her mother wanted to get an item out of her suitcase, Imanita had to go sit on the bed. She hadn't gotten her money's worth. Very few know this, but the ship was rushed into completion in several part of her interiors, including the Turkish Baths.
In Second Class the toilet pots for the ladies were done for only a small part, many were piled up in crates, waiting to be installed, The drama didn't end at the cabins. In the Dining Saloon the trays were missing so all the passengers had to wait endlessly to be served cold food, because it had to be carried to them bowl for bowl. She went up and down with new discerns to the Pursor several times, 11 even before Queenstown, before she was given another Cabin which was still without functioning heater.
She felt that she paid for the best Second Class service you could expect on Titanic but got very little for her money. Imanita discovered later that many Second Class but also other Third Class passengers had suffered from bitter cold.
Sinking[]
On the evening of the 14 April the temperature had dropped by a lot. The shock as well as the engines being turned off, woke them up. Voices were heard by them from the hallway, and they overheard someone saying that they had run into an iceberg. They called for a steward. The ladies were told that everything was okay and they should go back to bed. Another steward came down the passage shouting "All on deck with lifebelts on." He brought two lifebelts for Mrs Parrish and Mrs Shelley, and showed them how to tie them on. Then he said they should go up to the Boat Deck. They made it to lifeboat 12, and she and her mother were thrown in. Her mother had to endure severe pain when a passenger had leapt into the boat and landed on top of her.
Carpathia[]
On Carpathia she had found out many Third Class passengers had suffered from the cold as well, their heating system wasn't functioning properly either.
Later life[]
She and her mother had taken many sea voyages and traveling in America after Titanic. The marriage between Imanita and William was broken somewhere in 1920 and she remarried to a close friend, Jack Huntington Hall.
She continued to travel everywhere in America in the 1920s with her mother. and settled in Hawaii for a while. Their adventures were often together without their husbands. On 6 December 1923, Imantia and Jack got married, in Manila, the Phillipines. Her mother's death in 1930 in Hawaii meant they would carry on to travel elsewhere whilst Lutie Parrish was buried there.
She later moved to settle in California in 1942. Her husband went to war, shortly afterwards.
Colorectal cancer caused her death on 24 May 1954, at the age of 66.
Sources[]
- 'Titanic' ©1996 (second print, 1998) Edward P. De Groot