Marie-Eugénie Spencer was a a passenger on Titanic.
Early life[]
Marie-Eugénie Adnot-Demougeot was born on February 16, 1864 in the small village of Mussey, France.
She was conceived from Pélagie Adnot, a seamstress of her state. It’s unknown who her biological father is. It might have been her father who, on 7 May 1873, married to Marie’s mother. His name was Louis Nicolas Demougeot and he was a boilermaker born in Wassy, Haute-Marne.
Her mother Pélagie died only a few months after Marie’s birth. Marie was raised in a modest environment. The young lady became a singer.
On December 24, 1884, she married a wealthy American named William Augustus Spencer. The wedding took place in London. The interclass marriage may have not been well seen by the Spencer family, which is why it was celebrated in London rather than in Paris, and the family didn’t attend. They were crazy about collecting books, their son not being an exception. The new Spencer couple lived between New York, Paris and their Swiss residence of Dreilinden.
In March 1912, William’s brother died. William was cited in the will, so the Spencer couple decided to go from Paris to New York for the execution of the will. They were joined by Eugénie Élise Lurette, a former maid of the Spencer family who was also cited in the will.
Titanic[]
On April 10, 1912, Marie and William embarked on Titanic in Cherbourg in First Class. They occupied cabin B-78. Élise was staying in cabin B-80.
On April 14, the ship had met its said fate after she collided with an iceberg, and just about scratched it, but it was enough to have tiny gaps in her hull beneath the water line. The ship was sinking.
On April 15, after midnight, realising the ship would founder, Captain Smith started the evacuation. The Spencer's were possibly awakened during the early moments of the evacuation, when stewards tried to rouse the passengers to come on deck with their lifejackets. She was saved from the sinking with her maid Eugenie Elise Lurette when they were allotted into a lifeboat, not certain which one, but it is hinted that it has been suggested that it was lifeboat 6.
William Spencer stayed behind on the ship and was lost in the disaster.
Marie was not accepted by the rest of the Spencers, probably because she was of lower class and born out of wedlock, so she could not count on their support after William’s death. Luckily, her maid remained loyal and stayed with her until Marie’s death. Rumor has it, that she had become manic and depressive as well as a morphine addict, which could account for her poor health and early demise, because she died a little more than a year after the sinking of the Titanic, on October 26, 1913, at 36 avenue Henri-Martin in Paris at the age of 46.