Lucile Polk Carter years after the Titanic disaster
Lucile Polk Carter was born October 20th, 1898; the daughter of William Ernest and Lucile Carter. She also had a brother William Thornton Carter. The family lived at Bryn Mawr, near Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
The Carters boarded the Titanic at Southampton Ticket #113760 as First Class passengers. They also brought along their two servants. They occupied cabins B-96 and B-98.
Lucile, her brother, and her mother were rescued in Lifeboat 4. Her father escaped in Collapsible C.
For some reason, her father had made comments on Carpathia, that he thought her mother wouldn't make it, and a divorce happened in 1914. At a Philadelphia dinner party given by Mr. & Mrs. Edward Brooke, Lucile met the host's brother, George Brooke Jr., a wealthy banker and steel manufacturer, and a bachelor in his mid-40s.
Lucile and her mother departed for Europe in June 1914, intending to stay for a year. When World War I broke out at the end of July, Carter and her mother were caught in Paris. George Brooke arrived in London and tried to get to Paris, but wartime travel restrictions made it impossible. Instead, he arranged passage for Carter and her daughter to England. Her mother married George Brooke and they returned to the United States. The couple married in London on August 16, 1914, with Brooke's brother and Lucile in attendance. The whole group sailed almost immediately back to the United States on board the Olympic, the sister ship of the Titanic.
For the first two years of their marriage, the new family divided their time between a city house in Philadelphia; a country house in Birdsboro, Pennsylvania, "Brookewood", that Brooke had inherited from his late parents; and a rented summer cottage in Newport, Rhode Island. Lucile made her Philadelphia society debut in 1916 while they were living at "Rock Rose", a Radnor, Pennsylvania mansion they rented in the Fall, but their stay was marred by a fire in December 12. Another fire happened in the early hours of Christmas Day 1917. Brooke, Carter and the children were roused from their beds. The new country house "Brookewood" was destroyed.
In 1922 Lucile married Samuel James Reeves, an iron magnate. They had a daughter (the later Mrs. Clinton W. Trowbridge) and a son, David Reeves who lived in Wayne, Pennsylvania. At the time of her death, she had six grandchildren and was residing in Charleston, South Carolina.
Lucile died at her daughter's home in Summerville, South Carolina on October 19th, 1962. She was buried at Valley Forge Memorial Park, Pennsylvania.