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04/14/1912
Young Greensburg Woman Survives Titanic Disaster
Mary Sophie Abrahim, an 18-year-old from Greensburg was a 3rd class passenger on the Titanic returning from a visit to her family in Syria. According to encyclopedia-titanica.org, she was rescued in collapsible lifeboat C and returned to New York City on April 18th aboard the Carpathia. She died in Greensburg on December 11, 1976.
Quoting from a Greensburg Herald Tribune article of April 22, 1912: 'Gesturing with her expressive hands, Mrs. Abraham illustrated how the great ship rocked and swayed, and how the half dressed people swarmed up on deck. Then she told of the orders from the officers to lower the lifeboats, how women were placed in the boats, how one by one they were filled and rowed away, and then finally, how she was picked up by a sailor and thrown into the sea, the sailor missing the lifeboat in his haste. . . When she came to the surface, after her plunge, Mrs. Abraham says, she was taken into a crowded lifeboat. A big wave upset it and all were in the water. Another lifeboat picked Mrs. Abraham up with two or three others . . . Four sailors in her lifeboat rowed away from the side of the sinking ship. Finally they joined a group of lifeboats, and the little flotilla was fastened together with ropes to afford better protection. . . She watched the big ship with all the lights sinking lower and lower until all the lights were out. . . In New York she was met by many men, she said, who questioned her if she had a place to go . . . one man gave her a ticket to Greensburg and another gave her $30.00. . . Mrs. Abraham arrived in Greensburg . . . Sunday morning. . . When she descended from the train, she was dazed. . . Henry Coshey and Baggageman Carns assisted her to the station, and secured Mr. Coleman's taxicab. . . In a trice after she alighted at the store of her brother in South Main Street, Mrs. Abraham was surrounded by a sobbing, laughing swarm of relatives and friends. Hugging and kissing her by turns, the one Greensburg survivor of the Titantic was greeted.'
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