Richard Fulton Becker was a passenger and a survivor of the RMS Titanic when it sank on April 15, 1912. Richard was also known to be the youngest brother of Marion Becker and Ruth Becker who were also Titanic survivors.
Early Life[]
Richard Fulton Becker was born in Tamil Nadu, India on June 26, 1910.
He was the youngest child of Allen Oliver Becker, a Lutheran pastor originally from Michigan, and Nellie Elizabeth Baumgardner, a native of Ohio. His parents had married in Ohio on September 20, 1898 and shortly after settled in India where his father worked as a missionary. He had three siblings: Ruth Elizabeth Becker, Luther Allen and Marion Louise Becker.
In early 1912 Richard became ill and upon the advice of physicians the family were encouraged to return to the USA where he had better chance of survival.
Titanic[]
He, his mother and sisters left his father behind in India. For their ship trip, the Becker family boarded the Titanic at Southampton, United Kingdom on April 10, 1912 as Second Class passengers.
On the night of April 14, Titanic had struck an iceberg and after midnight, it became clear she would founder. Soon, the order for evacuation was given. Mrs. Becker had gathered her three children and headed to the upper decks where they waited for a time in one of the public rooms before braving the cold out on the open deck, either on the Boat Deck. Richard and his sister Marion were bundled into a lifeboat 11 by a crewman and followed by their anxious mother. His sister Ruth escaped in the following lifeboat 13.
Richard and the rest of his family survived the sinking and eventually made it to America onboard the RMS Carpathia.
Later Life[]
Richard's father joined the rest of the family in America in 1913. By 1920 he was still living with his family, now in Wooster, Wayne County, Ohio. He later became a singer and in later life a social welfare worker. He was married in 1943 Eva Marie Anderson and had a son, Richard Fulton. The 1940 census shows Richard and his family living in Jacksonville, Illinois. He was widowed in 1942 but not long after that, he remarried to Jessie Arline Armstrong. The couple had two daughters, Judith Anne and Deborah Elizabeth.
Death[]
Richard, a widower twice over, died in Peoria, Illinois on September 6, 1975 aged 65 and was buried in Swan Lake Memory Gardens, Peoria.