Marion Becker
Marion Becker was a Second Class passenger and survivor of the sinking of the RMS Titanic.
Early Life[]
Marion "Louise" Becker was born in Andhra Pradesh, India on December 28, 1907.
She was the daughter of Allen Oliver Becker, a Lutheran pastor originally from Michigan, and Nellie Elizabeth Baumgardner, a native of Ohio. Her parents had married in Ohio on September 20, 1898. Shortly after the wedding they settled in India where her father worked as a missionary.
Marion had two siblings: Ruth Elizabeth and Richard Fulton. Ruth was her elder sister, born in 1899. An older brother, Luther Allen was born in 1905 but he died at the age of 2 in February 1907, many months before Marion. Richard was born in June 1910 at Kodaikanal.
In early 1912, the young boy contracted an illness and Nellie decided to take him, Ruth, and Marion to Benton Harbor, Michigan to seek treatment for him. They left Allen behind and traveled to London before making their way to Southampton.
Titanic[]
Mother Nellie, Marion, Ruth and Richard boarded the Titanic as Second Class passengers on April 10.
On the night of April 14, the ship struck an iceberg and started to sink. On April 15, a few minutes after midnight, the captain was aware of the situation and ordered for evacuation.
Mrs. Becker had gathered her three children and headed to the upper decks where they waited for a while in one of the public rooms, before they braved the cold out on the open deck, either on the A-Deck Promenade or the Boat Deck. Marion and her brother were bundled into a lifeboat (number 11) by a crewman, followed by their anxious mother. Her sister Ruth escaped in the next lifeboat, which was number 13. Eventually they were picked up and brought to New York by the RMS Carpathia.
Later Life[]
Marion's father joined the rest of the family in America in 1913. By 1920 she was still living with her family, now in Wooster, Wayne County, Ohio. In 1930, Marion was a patient at a tuberculosis hospital in Springfield, Ohio.
Marion was never married. In 1940 she was living with another woman in Denver, Colorado. She was the Utah-born Alta Johnson, aged 27. They were both unemployed at the time. Alta is listed as 'Head' of the household and Marion is listed as 'Partner.' Whether they were lovers is not known, but this is perhaps what caused the familial rift between Marion and her mother.
Death[]
Marion later lived in Glendale, Los Angeles, California and died there on February 15, 1944 after battling tuberculosis. Aged just 36, she was buried in a family plot in Oakland Cemetery, Princeton, Illinois. Her mother refused to go to her funeral.