Margaret Tobin
 (The “Unsinkable”) 'Molly' Brown

By: Quinton Burnett

Margaret Tobin was born in Hannibal, Missouri on July 18, 1867 to John Tobin and Johanna Collins. Margaret grew up in a Catholic-Irish family with four siblings. Margaret’s first job was in a tobacco company, where she stripped the tobacco leaves from the stems. She spent twelve hours, six days a week doing this. Margaret later worked at the Park Hotel, and that is where the myth arose that she met Mark Twain and he told her to go west to find fame and fortune. Molly did move west when she was 18 with her older sister Mary and her sister’s husband, Jack Landrigan. The three moved to Leadville, Colorado in 1883. There she met her future husband, J.J Brown, who was partial owner of a mine.

J.J and Margaret had financial problems early in their marriage. They had their first child, Lawrence, in 1887 and their second child, Catherine Ellen, followed two years later in 1889. Then in J.J’s mine they found silver, and since he had a 1/8 ownership of the mine, the Browns became millionaires. With the newfound wealth, Margaret, J.J., and the kids moved to Denver, Colorado. Margaret was a philanthropist, a person who gives to the needy.

Margaret was traveling in Egypt when she heard her son, Lawrence, was ill. She took the first boat back to the United States, the Titanic. She embarked from Cherbourg, England. The night the Titanic sank, Margaret got on lifeboat 6, and organized the chaos of her lifeboat. This is where she got the nickname, “The Unsinkable Molly Brown.” She witnessed cowardice from Robert Hichens (A quartermaster from the Titanic) when he refused to go back and help the people needing rescue, and she threatened to throw him overboard.

After the sinking of the Titanic, Margaret was a nurse in World War I, she tried to be elected to the Senate eight years before women could even vote, and she also helped establish one of the first Juvenile Courts. Margaret died of a brain tumor at age 65.

By whatever name you know her, Margaret (Molly) Brown was a hero

Citations

26 Mar. 2008 <http://www.encyclopedia-titanica.org/item/1809/>.

26 Mar. 2008 <http://www.mollybrownmuseum.com/molly-history.html>.