page_title: Margaret Brown
section_title: Later life and death
hierarchical_section_title: Margaret Brown / Later life and death
caption_attribution_description: English: Mrs. J.J. Brown, standing
context_page_description: Margaret Brown, posthumously known as "The Unsinkable Molly Brown", was an American socialite and philanthropist. She unsuccessfully encouraged the crew in Lifeboat No. 6 to return to the debris field of the 1912 sinking of RMS Titanic to look for survivors. During her lifetime, her friends called her "Maggie", but even by her death, obituaries referred to her as the "Unsinkable Molly Brown". The reference was further reinforced by a 1960 Broadway musical based on her life and its 1964 film adaptation which were both entitled The Unsinkable Molly Brown.
context_section_description: Brown ran for the U.S. Senate in 1914 but ended her campaign to return to France to work with the American Committee for Devastated France during World War I.
  At the time of J.J. Brown's death on September 5, 1922, Margaret told newspapers, "I've never met a finer, bigger, more worthwhile man than J.J. Brown." J.J. died intestate, and five years of disputation between Margaret and her two children were required to finally settle the estate. Due to their lavish spending, J.J. left an estate valued at only $238,000, equivalent to $2,852,641 in 2018. Molly was to receive $20,000 in cash and securities (equivalent to $305,487 in 2019), and the interest on a $100,000 trust fund (equivalent to $1,527,435 in 2019) in her name. The sum of $118,000 was to be divided between her two children, who each received a $59,000 (equivalent to $901,187 in 2019) trust fund. A court case against Catherine and Lawrence was settled privately, and Margaret and her children were reconciled at the time of Margaret's death in 1932.
  During the last years of her life, she was an actress. Margaret Brown died in her sleep at 10:55 p.m. on October 26, 1932, at the Barbizon Hotel in New York City, New York. Subsequent autopsy revealed a brain tumor. Her body was buried along with J.J. in the Cemetery of the Holy Rood in Westbury, New York, following a small ceremony on October 31, 1932, attended only by close friends and family. There was no eulogy.
caption: Portrait of Margaret Brown
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