Ruth Becker
By: Brooke Bennett

Ruth Becker was born on October 28^th 1899, In Guntur, India.  Her father, Allen Oliver Becker, was an American Lutheran Missionary. Ruth was the oldest of three children.  She had a brother, Richard, and a sister, Marion.

When she boarded the Titanic in Southampton, Ruth was twelve years old. She had ticket number 230136 for second class, and it cost 39 pounds. Her mother, brother, and sister were on board with her, the family on its way to Michigan. When they got to their cabin, Ruth excitedly said, “Everything in our cabin was new. New! Our cabin was so big. It was just like a big hotel room. The dining room was beautiful-the linens, all the bright polished silver you can imagine.”

When the disaster struck, Ruth reacted just the same as any normal person on the Titanic did. She did not panic. She simply said, “We’ve had a little accident. They’re going to fix it, and we’ll be on our way.” Unfortunately, they did not fix it, and they did not continue on their way. When Ruth and their family heard the news, they hurried to the upper deck, and got into the lifeboats. Ruth’s family got aboard lifeboat number eleven, but Ruth was last in the line. She was forced to get into lifeboat number thirteen. When the lifeboat was lowered into the water, Ruth generously gave her blanket to a shivering stoker.

The nearest ship at the time was the Californian, which was approximately ten miles away. The Titanic was sending out distress calls, including the new SOS. When the Californian did not answer, the Titanic started sending out distress rockets, one every five minutes off the port side. After two rockets had been fired, the ship had still not answered, but the crew did not give up. Meanwhile, the wireless officer had identified the Carpathia, fifty-two miles away. It would take four hours for them to get to the Titanic. Knowing the time it would take, the Carpathia made its way to the Titanic. When the ship arrived, the Titanic had already sunken completely. The Carpathia helped all 705 survivors aboard, and Ruth and her family were reunited. Once all the passengers were aboard, they made their way to New York.

Several years after the event, Ruth had been asked about the Titanic many times, and she refused to speak to any reporter.  Apparently, she did not want to remember the event, as it was a very tragic one.

Ruth later attended high school in Ohio. She graduated college in Ohio as well, and became a high school teacher in Kansas. She married Daniel Blanchard, one of her classmates. They had three children of her own, who did not know that their mother had been aboard the Titanic for many years after they were born.  Twenty years after the marriage, the Blanchards got a divorce.

Ruth continued her teaching duties immediately after the divorce, and did not stop until retirement several years later.  She soon moved to Santa Barbara, California, and went on a cruise to Mexico in 1990, this being her first boat ride since the Titanic. The same year Ruth Becker died at the age of ninety on July 6^th. “She was cremated and her ashes were spread over the exact spot in the Atlantic Ocean where the Titanic had sunk seventy-eight years prior.” ("Ruth Becker")
 

Works Cited 

Sands, Stella. "The Classes of 1912." Kids Discover 2005: 7.

"Ruth Becker." Wikipedia. Wikipedia. 1 Apr 2008 <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruth_Becker>.

Hind, Phil. "Ruth Becker." Encyclopedia Titanica. 1996. Encyclopedia Titanica. 1 Apr 2008 <http://www.encyclopedia-titanica.org/biography/344/>.

“Ruth Elizabeth Becker Blanchard.” Online Image. Find a Grave. 8^th April, 2008 http://www.findagrave.com/photos/2006/127/14229065_114715548881.jpg