Mary Eloise Smith

Mary Eloise Smith also referred to as Eloise Smith or Mrs. Lucien P. Smith, was a survivor of the 1912 RMS *Titanic* disaster.  Mary Eloise (née Hughes) was born in Huntington, West Virginia, on August 7th, 1893.

Eloise Smith was a member of the Vinson political family; the daughter of United States Representative James A. Hughes and Belle Vinson. As children, Eloise and her sister had made the acquaintance of President Theodore Roosevelt.

Mary Eloise married Lucien Philip Smith, a 24-year old graduate, fresh from the West Virginia University. He had been trying to win her over after her introduction to the Huntington society in January 1912. She was just 18 at the time.

Their wedding was at the Central Christian Church in Huntington and it caught a lot of media attention and was hailed as one of the most brilliant events by one local newspaper. Newly pregnant, she was returning from her honeymoon in April 1912. Their trip had included a transatlantic crossing to Europe aboard *Titanic's* sister ship RMS *Olympic* and sightseeing in Italy, France, the Middle East and Egypt. Lucian Philip and Eloise Hughes Smith boarded *Titanic* on Wednesday evening, 10 April 1912 in Cherbourg on their way home from their honeymoon. The couple had considered taking Cunard liner RMS *Lusitania* home but ultimately decided to buy a ticket for the maiden voyage of the newest, and most luxurious ship in the White Star fleet. They stayed in cabin C-31.

Titanic sank on April 15 after making contact with an iceberg in the late evening of April 14, at 11:40 P.M. Mary had gone to bed after playing cards with three gentlemen Because women and children could only enter on port side with the men staying behind, Lucian stayed on Titanic and was lost. His body was never found.

She survived by being escorted to lifeboat 6 and lowered away from the sinking ship. On *Carpathia*, two passengers who were newly weds, were kind enough to let her stay in their cabin. She went on to give birth to her son Lucian Jr. in November 1912. At the American Enquiry, she vented her suspicions that the whole Titanic affair was heavily influenced by moneyed interests.

On 18 August 1914, she married a fellow survivor, Robert Daniel, a bank executive.

Smith was quoted extensively in the 1912 best-selling book *The Sinking of the Titanic* by Jay Henry Mowbray. Her letters and other recollections were also used by the documentary filmmaker Melissa Jo Peltier in the A&E Network documentaries *Titanic: Death of a Dream* and *Titanic: The Legend Lives On* to illustrate the hours between the *Titanic*'s encounter with the iceberg and the rescue of the survivors by RMS *Carpathia*, and in the documentary *Titanic: Anatomy of a Disaster*. She's also been portrayed in the National Geographic documentary television series *Seconds from Disaster* in the episode featuring the *Titanic*.

Eloise Smith died in 1940 at the age of 46 in Cincinnati, Ohio, USA after suffering a heart attack.

## Legacy

Mrs. Smith's recollections of the sinking have been quoted in numerous documentaries about the sinking of the ship, and she has been portrayed in at least one fictional and one non-fictional depiction of the disaster.