Virginia Martin

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October 6th, 1905 - August 6th, 1936

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October 6th, 1905 - August 6th, 1936

She is a Libra.

Virginia Ethel Emmanuel (Martin) was born in Manhattan, New York to John Alfred Deszo Martin (1882 - 1914) and Stella Well (1885 - 1959). Her father was Jewish and hailed from Budapest, Hungary whilst her mother had been born in Cincinnati, Ohio of German-French and German-Jewish heritage. They were married in Manhattan on December 29th, 1903 but were separated by June of 1907. In 1909 Stella (going by the name Estelle Martin) was cited in a divorce case between Walter Emanuel (1879 - 1929) and his wife Florence. Walter and Estelle married in New Jersey in 1910.

Walter was vaguely described on the 1910 census as living off his own means, and he, Virginia, and Estelle were recorded living at 115th Street West, Manhattan. Virginia's biological father meanwhile, was back living with his parents at West 150th Street and working as a clothing salesman. It seems that Estelle and Walter marriage was brief. Estelle was an actress and aspiring singer, going most frequently by the name Elise Martin. She travelled to London in early 1912, arriving aboard the RMS Olympic on January 31st, 1912 disembarking at Plymouth. She travelled in 1st class, chaperoned by her American nursemaid Elizabeth Dowdell. With Estelle reportedly being handed a 6-month- contract for shows in London, Virginia was soon sent back to New York again accompanied by Elizabeth Dowdell.

Aboard Titanic/April 14th-15th, 1912:
Virginia and Elizabeth boarded the RMS Titanic at Southampton on April 10th, 1912, this time traveling as 3rd class passengers. Whilst aboard they shared a cabin with Amy Stanley.  Elizabeth later recounted:

"I had put Ethel to bed, and was preparing to retire myself when the crash came. I went into the passageway and asked a steward what was wrong. He assured me that everything was all right. I went back, to go to bed, but scarcely had I closed the door, when someone came running along the passage, ordering all hands to dress and put on life belts."

Amy Stanley recalled, they had some trouble getting Virginia dressed:

"I went back to Lizzie who was annoyed at the noise. I told her, but I had a difficult task to convince her. We had some port wine and started dressing, but we had hard work to dress the child. She was used to dressing herself and was rather a stubborn child. The more we hurried her the longer she took."

Elizabeth continues:

"I took my time in getting ready, not thinking the situation was serious. I firmly believed the Titanic was unsinkable. When we tried to get to the deck the stairways were so crowded that we could not get to the deck above. Men and women were climbing over each other here, and it was impossible for them to move. They appeared to me to be steerage passengers, and their cries and curses were terrible to hear.

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