Louise Laroche
Louise Marie Marguerite Laroche was a passenger on the RMS Titanic. Louise, her sister and her father are famous for being the only black passengers on board the liner.
Early life[]
Louise Marie Marguerite Laroche was born on July 2, 1910 in Villejuif, France to a Haitian man and a Frenchwoman. They were Joseph Laroche and Juliette Marie Louise Lafargue. Juliette was the daughter of a wine seller and Joseph was from a well-to-do family in Haiti and had migrated to France to study engineering. He graduated and had a job in engineering. They met and married in Villejuf. Louise had one older sibling, Simonne Marie Anne Andrée who was born on February 19, 1909.
Louise was born premature and frail, suffering from many medical problems in her first years. In 1912, the family decided to leave the country to join Haiti in order to escape the discrimination they faced, which hindered her father from taking a job. They also were still living with Juliette's parents. Louise's condition needed special treatment so her father needed financial stability to afford the medication.
Titanic[]
The Laroches left earlier than planned as Juliette was pregnant, and wanted to arrive in Haiti before travel became impossible due to her delicate condition. They took a Second Class ticket for boarding the Titanic in April. Their initial plans were to travel in First Class with the SS France, but they learned that parents and children would have to dine seperately as per written rule, but the couple wanted to keep Louise close at all times because of her health so they changed tickets.
On April 10, 1912, at the end of the day, the Titanic made a stop at the harbor of Cherbourg. As the port did not have enough space to accommodate such a large ship, passengers board via two ferries, the Nomadic and the Traffic. Like all First and Second Class passengers, the Laroches boarded her from the Nomadic.
On April 14, the Titanic struck an iceberg around 11:40 P.M. The Laroche couple took their two little girls to the Boat Deck to board the lifeboats. According to Juliette Laroche's account to the press, a few weeks after the sinking, her daughter Simone was seized by a sailor and thrown into the boat, Juliette was then thrown in right afterwards. After many efforts, Joseph succeeded in convincing the sailors to also take Louise with them as well. He promised his wife to find her, saying he will find his own boat. A promise he couldn't keep sadly as he was lost in the sinking.
The boat in which the Laroches embarked remains undefined. Several sources assume that it was lifeboat 14, but the fact that their testimony mentions a Countess suggests that it is lifeboat 8, the boat where the Countess of Rothes was rescued and famously took the tiller.
After being rescued and taken aboard the Carpathia, the family couldn't find the father, but Juliette kept hoping: she believed he could have been saved by another ship. It was not until they arrived in New York three days later that the family had learnt that her father had not survived the ordeal.
Having arrived in New York, the three Laroches had nowhere to go. They were brought to the St. Vincent's Hospital, where they were fed and clothed by Hugh Kelly, a philanthropist. Juliette Laroche then decided to return to Villejuif in France with her father. They went on the French liner Chicago for the voyage.
Later life[]
Little is known about Louise Laroche's life after the sinking. The family hit some financial trouble along the way. Most of her life she lived in the home of her grandfather André Charles Lafargue, Julliette's father, a merchant in wife. His business declined after World War 1. He then encouraged Juliette to file a claim against the White Star Line. It did pay off, after which Louise's mother received 150 francs and she started a dyeing shop.
Louise never married. She did however take part in a number of Titanic-related commemorations and events in the last years of her life, alongside other survivors like Millvina Dean. The Titanic Historical Society also conducted a study about it. In March 1995, Louise stepped aboard the Nomadic for the first time since 1912 when it carried her family to the Titanic from Cherbourg, France. Millvina Dean also took part in this occasion. That same year, Louise was also present as the Titanic Historical Society dedicated a stone marker in Cherbourg commemorating Titanic passengers who sailed from its port.
She continued to live in Villejuif where she died on January 25, 1998. She reached the age of 87. After her passing only six Titanic survivors remained.