Luise Kink Heilmann
Luise Kink-Heilmann was a passenger on Titanic who survived the disaster.
German born Luise Heilmann was a native of Enzberg, where she came into this world on 21 March 1886.
Luise married Anton Kink, a shop keeper from Mahrensdorf, on 5 May 1908 in Austria, four weeks after the birth of their daughter Luise Gretchen Kink-Heilmann. She was conceived on April 8. They lived at 66 Hornbachstrasse, Zürich. In May 1911 Anton's mother died, and Anton's brother Vincenz Kink and sister Miss Maria Kink came over to Zürich after her death, to live with Anton and both Luises. After roughly a year the party wanted to migrate to the United States.
All five boarded the Titanic. Bound for Milwaukee, Luise was in Cabin #190 with her daughter, Aloisia Haas, Josefine Arnold and her sister-in-law Maria Kink.
On the night of April 14, disaster struck as Titanic was fatally wounded when she couldn't avoid hitting an iceberg. The ship started to sink.
On April 15, after midnight, Luise was awoken by her husband who came from their section with his brother, and told what happened. They had seen ice on deck and their cabin was already flooding. The women all dressed. They managed to make it to the Boat Deck but Luise and Anton lost Vincenz and Maria on the way. Luise and her daughter were put on lifeboat 2 but Anton remained onboard, untill the boat was lowered, and then Anton jumped in and joined them.
Luise, Anton and their daughter travelled onto Milwaukee and Anton eventually raised enough money to lease a farm but he divorced Luise in 1919. She never learnt English to a sufficient level and became more and more secluded. She never really spoke about her experiences that night and if asked she would respond "Why would you want to know that?", and would burst into tears. She remarried to an unknown Mr. Kroepl.
In 1974 however, she did share a moment of reflection: "Being in the lifeboat, waiting for the Carpathia, never had I though, I would live to grow as old as I am now."
Her daughter cared for he until her death on Ocotber 9, 1979. She reached the very respectable age of 93.
She was laid to rest in Sunnyside-cemetary, Milwaukee.