Lillian Asplund, last American to remember Titanic sinking

BOSTON – The last American to remember seeing hundreds of fellow passengers drown in the icy North Atlantic when the Titanic sank 94 years ago has died at age 99.

Lillian Gertrud Asplund was returning home to the United States from Sweden with her parents and four brothers when the ship, believed to be “unsinkable”, struck an iceberg on April 14 1912 and sank a few hours later on April 15. A US Senate report said 1 523 people were killed.”She even said she saw the ship slip into the water,” said Philip Maloof, her lawyer and close friend.”She was the last one (left) in the world to actually see the disaster.”At least two other survivors are living, but they were too young to remember what happened.Barbara Joyce West Dainton of Truro, England, was 10 months old and Elizabeth Gladys ‘Millvina’ Dean of Southampton, England, was two months old.A lifetime resident of Massachusetts, Asplund was an intensely private person who shunned all publicity surrounding the disaster.Selma Asplund told her daughter it was not good to talk about the catastrophe, and she rarely did.The funeral home spokesman said Lillian instructed relatives to keep quiet about what she saw and even asked that the disaster not be mentioned in her obituary.Asplund lost more than half her family in the accident when her father and three brothers – one a fraternal twin – stayed behind as crewmen rushed the young girl, her younger brother Felix, who was three, and their mother into a lifeboat.”We went to the upper deck.I could see the icebergs for a great distance around …It was cold and the little ones were cuddling close to one another and trying to keep from under the feet of the many excited people …,” Asplund’s mother told the Worcester Telegram & Gazette in an interview decades ago.”My little girl, Lillie, accompanied me, and my husband said ‘Go ahead, we will get into one of the other boats.’ He smiled as he said it.”Asplund never married.She worked as a clerk at an insurance company and spent her life caring for her mother.Asplund and her brother, who also remained single, bought a home in Shrewsbury and moved their mother there, who was ill.Selma Asplund died on the 52nd anniversary of the sinking in 1964 at age 91.Felix Asplund died on March 1 1983.After retiring, Asplund lived alone, gardening and watching soap operas on TV.She continued to heed her mother’s advice and rejected requests to talk about what happened on the Titanic.Privately, however, Asplund opened up.Maloof, her lawyer, said she broached the subject voluntarily as the pair became friends.”She told me that she saw her father standing on the Titanic,” Maloof said.”She didn’t say specifically that she was in a lifeboat, but she must have been.”Still, Asplund refused to sit for interviews, even if they offered to pay her.”Why do I want money from the Titanic,” Maloof recalled Asplund saying.”Look what I lost.A father and three brothers.”- Nampa-Reuters-APA US Senate report said 1 523 people were killed.”She even said she saw the ship slip into the water,” said Philip Maloof, her lawyer and close friend.”She was the last one (left) in the world to actually see the disaster.”At least two other survivors are living, but they were too young to remember what happened.Barbara Joyce West Dainton of Truro, England, was 10 months old and Elizabeth Gladys ‘Millvina’ Dean of Southampton, England, was two months old.A lifetime resident of Massachusetts, Asplund was an intensely private person who shunned all publicity surrounding the disaster.Selma Asplund told her daughter it was not good to talk about the catastrophe, and she rarely did.The funeral home spokesman said Lillian instructed relatives to keep quiet about what she saw and even asked that the disaster not be mentioned in her obituary.Asplund lost more than half her family in the accident when her father and three brothers – one a fraternal twin – stayed behind as crewmen rushed the young girl, her younger brother Felix, who was three, and their mother into a lifeboat.”We went to the upper deck.I could see the icebergs for a great distance around …It was cold and the little ones were cuddling close to one another and trying to keep from under the feet of the many excited people …,” Asplund’s mother told the Worcester Telegram & Gazette in an interview decades ago.”My little girl, Lillie, accompanied me, and my husband said ‘Go ahead, we will get into one of the other boats.’ He smiled as he said it.”Asplund never married.She worked as a clerk at an insurance company and spent her life caring for her mother.Asplund and her brother, who also remained single, bought a home in Shrewsbury and moved their mother there, who was ill.Selma Asplund died on the 52nd anniversary of the sinking in 1964 at age 91.Felix Asplund died on March 1 1983.After retiring, Asplund lived alone, gardening and watching soap operas on TV.She continued to heed her mother’s advice and rejected requests to talk about what happened on the Titanic.Privately, however, Asplund opened up.Maloof, her lawyer, said she broached the subject voluntarily as the pair became friends.”She told me that she saw her father standing on the Titanic,” Maloof said.”She didn’t say specifically that she was in a lifeboat, but she must have been.”Still, Asplund refused to sit for interviews, even if they offered to pay her.”Why do I want money from the Titanic,” Maloof recalled Asplund saying.”Look what I lost.A father and three brothers.”- Nampa-Reuters-AP