Margaret Hays
Margaret Hays was an American First Class Passenger that survived the sinking of the Titanic. She was born in New York on 6 December 1887, meaning she was 24 at the time of the sinking.
Margaret Hays boarded in Cherbourg with a group of friends and aquintances. She travelled with Lily Potter and Olive Earnshaw. Olive and Margaret had been school friends at Briarcliff School in New York. Olive and Margaret shared cabin C-54. Gilbert Tucker, a handsome young man Hays had met in Europe, cut his visit short to join her on the Titanic. He occupied cabin C-53. He had fallen for her and became her self-appointed escort. She also brought her dog Bebe with her, one of 12 dogs onboard the ship.
When the Titanic sank, Hays dressed and enveloped Bebe, and went to the boat deck with Lily Potter, Olive Earnshaw and Gilbert Tucker jr. James Clinch Smith passed by Hays and jokingly commented: "Oh, i suppose we ought to put a life preserve on the little doggie, too." She did manage to get Bebe with her off the ship, 1 of only 3 dogs that survived. The group entered lifeboat 7, the first lifeboat to be launched. While being on the Carpathia, she looked after the two Navratil orphans, Michel and Edmond, who lost their father in the sinking and could not speak English but she knew French. The two of them played with Bebe, until they were picked up by their mother again.
Hays's admirer Gilbert Tucker also survived the sinking. Nevertheless, Hays went on to marry a Rhode Island physician, Charles Daniel Easton, in 1913 and they had two daughters. She was widowed on October 4, 1934. Hays remained friends with Tucker and the two corresponded frequently. She died on August 21, 1956, in Buenos Aires, Argentina, of a heart attack while on vacation with one of her daughters. She is buried at St. Mary's Churchyard, Portsmouth, Rhode Island.