Source: wikimedia commons
Can you believe it has been just over one whole year since I covered Titanic connections to Duluth? I meant to continue on in a series of the other survivors and victims, but life became really busy, and still is.
If you do recall, I wrote about the Silveys, as their former home was for sale during the time I wrote about them on the 111th anniversary of the disaster, last year. 112 years later, nothing has changed, but only to tell their stories.
Since I already detailed the Silveys story, my next person is a lady by the name of Constance Willard.
Miss Willard was born the 6th of June, 1890 in Minneapolis to parents, David and Cora Day Willard. Her father was a retired lumber dealer by the time the family had moved to Duluth, at the residence of 1230 E 8th Street, where Constance lived with her parents whence she traveled to board the Titanic in Southampton, England after a visit to her aunt. Her First Class ticket was purchased for £26 (pounds) and 11s (schillings), Ticket Number 113795. The ticket value is equivalent to over £3,700 today, or the equivalent to under $4,600 today. She was accompanied by the Carter family who were new found friends to Ms. Willard, and promised Constance’s aunt to look after her on their way to New York City.
Credit: Minneapolis Star Tribune, Gavin Bell, U.K.
Ms. Willard had been interviewed several times over the years before she passed away. It was believed that she suffered from mental illness, but earlier interviews and documentation remain, thankfully.
She described the night after the Titanic collision:
“I had been reading in my bed late Sunday night… I had just shut my book when there was a tremendous crash. I sat up in bed. The crash was followed after a moment by a great trembling; then for a moment it was unnaturally quiet because the engines had stopped and with them the vibration. I had a peculiar sensation that something had happened which I had been expecting. I was not in the least alarmed.
I had an uneasy feeling so I thought I’d call the steward. There was no answer when I pushed the bell. I repeated it several times and then I kept it ringing. Finally he came into the room. His face wore a scared expression which struck me as rather funny. He told me I must put on my clothes and get out on deck.
The women were being placed in the boats, and two men took hold of me and almost pushed me into a boat. I did not appreciate the danger and I struggled until they released me. ‘Do not waste time; let her go if she will not get in,’ an officer said. I hurried back to my cabin again and went from cabin to cabin looking for my friends, but could not find them. A little English girl about 15 years old ran up to me and threw her arms about me.
‘Oh, I am all alone,’ she sobbed, ‘won’t you let me go with you?’ I then began to realise the real danger and saw that all but two of the boats had been lowered. Some men called to us and we hurried to where they were loading a boat. All the women had been provided with lifebelts. As the men lifted us into the boat they smiled and told us to be brave.
I finally did get into the fourth from the last to leave the ship. There were only 15 people in the boat I was in and of these there was only one other first-class passenger. The others were five sailors and the balance steerage passengers. I shall never forget the sinking of the Titanic. We had not gone off the Titanic 20 minutes before she went under. The ship was lighted until it disappeared under the waves. Shortly after it had sank the cries of those in the water rent the air.” (Duluth News Tribune, Duluth, 9 May, 1912)
Source: Encyclopedia Titanica
Credit: Unknown
Unidentified Newspaper
Miss Constance Willard Relates Incidents of the Tragedy and Describes Her Feelings.
MEN PERISHED WITHOUT SINGLE TRACE OF FEAR
Stood on Decks as Leviathan Staggered to Its Grave and Met Fate Like Heroes.
Miss Constance Willard, 1230 East Eighth street, one of the survivors of the ill-fated Titanic, arrived in Duluth at 7 o’clock last evening from Minneapolis, where she has been visiting friends for the past week. Miss Willard gives an interesting account of the wreck of the monster ship and blames its fate to the attempt to make a record-breaking voyage across the Atlantic.
“The wreck appears to me as if it had occurred ages ago,” said Miss Willard to a News Tribune reporter last evening. “The after effects have created a certain nervousness which I feel whenever I board any kind of a vehicle, as if I was expecting something to happen. Still, I feel a sort of an apathy. I have a kind of a ‘don’t care what happens’ feeling.
Was Not Alarmed
“When the first shock of the collision with the iceberg took place I paid no attention to it. I did not feel afraid that anything serious had happened. I was in bed and was trying to go to sleep. Then I heard people walking in the corridors. Soon the crowd seemed to surging back and forth, but it was not until a considerable time after the boat had struck that I opened the door to inquire what was the matter and then I did not get a satisfactory answer.
“I rang the steward’s bell and not receiving any answer became angry so I just kept on ringing. Finally one of the stewardesses answered and she told me to dress, that the boat was in serious danger. Even then I did not get up in a hurry, but when I finally did I looked in the mirror and it was then I recalled the fate prophesied for me by a fortune-teller when I was 12 years old – that I would die on a trip when 21 on a trip to Europe.
Didn’t Propose to Die
“i felt a determination not to die, and hurriedly dressed, taking a number of trinkets, jewelry, money, my overcoat and furs. When I got on deck all appeared to be confusion. They were loading the boats with women. I got to one of them and they insisted on lifting me into it, but I objected. Later when I tried to get into one they were not so anxious to put me in. I finally did get into the fourth from the last to leave the ship.
“There were only 15 people in the boat I was in and of these there was only one other first-class passenger. The others were 5 sailors and the balance steerage passengers.
“I shall never forget the sinking of the Titanic. We had not gone off the boat 20 minutes before she went under. The ship was lighted until it disappeared under the waves. Shortly after it sank the cries of those in the water rent the air. Then all was still for a few seconds and again the cries, only fainter.
Men Were Heroic
“The heroism of those men who stood back on the ship was noble. Most of the faces showed not a trace of fear, the only ones who quailed at all being the third class passengers, and when the officers put up their hands and motioned for the women and children first they stood back without a murmur.
“The night was bitterly cold. The sky was clear and all around us the stars shone in their brightness. During the night, while waiting for the Carpathia, I thought of almost every incident of my childhood, each detail seemed to come vividly before me.
“The treatment accorded us on board the Carpathia, and after our arrival in New York, was considerate in the extreme. It seemed as if the people could not do enough for us.
Miss Willard was a guest last evening at the home of Mrs. M. L. Parker, 3009 Minnesota avenue. She is confined to the house recovering from a serious sprain of the left arm sustained by a fall yesterday morning when on her way to the train from Minneapolis. –Encyclopedia Titanic
After Ms. Willard returned to Duluth, she eventually moved several years later to Riverside, California to live with her maternal uncle and aunt, Eugene and Mabel Day, per the 1920 Census. During her later years, she lived at Las Campanas Hospital with several of her cats, her companions, had long, white hair, and was prematurely aged. She passed away on the 25th of April, 1964 in Riverside, California. A staff member mentioned that she suffered from mental illness. It was also described that she was impassive to the showing of A Night to Remember (‘58). On the 50th Anniversary, staff were instructed to avoid the topic and not allow reporters to bother Constance.
Her obituary reads:
WILLARD
In Compton, Calif., April 26, 1964, Miss Constance Willard, late resident of 4310 Orange Street, Riverside, Calif. Sister of Mrs. Irma McCall of Altadena, Calif., Paul Willard of Minnesota and Jean Adair Wortz of 4310 Orange Street, Riverside, California. PRIVATE services will be conducted Tuesday morning at 11:00 o’clock in the M.H. Simons & Co. Chapel with Rev. Harold V. Harlsough officiating. Cremation in Evergreen Cemetery. – Riverside Press, Riverside, California, April 27, 1964, page B-11
Photo source: LoopNet
Stay tuned for the next story about a woman who immigrated and lived just outside of Duluth in the nearby suburb of Proctor.
Updated: 4/20/24 at 10:55 P.M..
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