SPEAKER_00: Hello, from Wonder Media Network, I'm Jenny Kaplan, and this is Womanica. We're celebrating Pride Month with icons, supreme queens of queer culture. Some are household names, others are a little more behind the scenes. All have defied social norms and influenced generations of people to be unapologetically themselves. Today, we're talking about not one, but two women who survived the sinking of the Titanic. Their commitment to each other was as strong as their commitment to getting their lifeboat to safety. Let's talk about Ella Holmes White and Marie Grice Young. Ella Holmes was born in Boston, Massachusetts, on December 18, 1856. She was one of four children. Her father, Edwin, was an inventor and a savvy businessman. He purchased the patent for the electromagnetic burglar alarm and opened up a home burglar alarm business. He soon realized Boston wasn't quite ready for this advancement in technology, but perhaps New York was. So in 1859, Edwin moved his family to Brooklyn. Ella spent her formative years there before moving to Manhattan with her family when she was in her mid-twenties. Six days before her 38th birthday, Ella married John Stuart White. The marriage ended abruptly when John died three years later. Ella moved back in with her parents. She lived with them until they both passed away. With no husband and no parents to take care of, Ella spent her days and her money as she pleased. She traveled the world. When she wasn't traveling, she was soaking up the summer rays in her apartment at Briarcliff Manor in Westchester, New York, or living lavishly in her room at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel. In early 1910, her travels took her to Atlantic City. That was where she met Marie Grice Young. Marie was born in Washington, D.C. on January 5, 1876. In true Washingtonian fashion, Marie came from a well-connected political family. This probably helped her get a job teaching piano to President Theodore Roosevelt's children. Marie studied music in school and went on to become a talented pianist. She used her talent to teach children and adults. In 1910, Marie's mother died. It was a hard loss, and Marie went to Atlantic City to recover. It was there, in such a pivotal chapter of her life, that Marie met Ella. Despite their 20-year age gap, the two women had a natural affinity for one another. Ella began inviting Marie to parties at Briarcliff Manor. Soon, the pair were globetrotting and living together. In most records, Marie is referred to as Ella's traveling companion. Historians have theorized so many different ways to label their relationship. Romantic partners, just close friends, or that Ella fulfilled a maternal role for Marie. Whatever the exact relationship, the two were inseparable. Ella and Marie spent the winter of 1912 traveling. That April, they boarded the Titanic to return home to New York. They were joined by Ella's maid and her male attendant. While aboard the ship, Ella was nursing an injured foot. The injury was severe enough that she had to use a cane to get around. But she didn't do much moving, because once she got to her room, she hardly left. Until the collision. April 14th was bitingly cold, as Ella later remembered. That evening, she was getting ready to turn in for the night when she felt a movement that she described as if, We had went over about a thousand marbles. She recalled, There was nothing terrifying about it at all. But the collision had caused some alarm. Marie, Ella, and her staff went up to the top deck to see what was going on. The captain of the ship ordered all the passengers to get their life jackets. They did as they were told. The lifeboats filled up with women and children first. Dressed in just their coats covering their nightgowns, Ella, Marie, and Ella's maid were loaded into lifeboat 8 and lowered into the ice-cold North Atlantic Ocean. Sadly, Ella's male attendant never made it off the ship. An officer ordered the lifeboats' haphazard crew to row toward the light of a ship in the distance. The passengers consisted of predominantly women and a few men. Ella was unimpressed with the men who they were supposed to rely on to row them to safety. According to her, they hardly knew how to row, and she even had to break up a few fights between them. They rowed toward the light for a little less than an hour before deciding their efforts were futile. The group rowed back toward the sinking ship and attempted to find other lifeboats. Ella and Marie each played crucial roles in getting them through the night. Marie joined the rowers and Ella became the signaler. The cane she used to support her foot injury had an electric light. It was the group's only source of light as the lamp on the boat flickered out. They were comforted by the fact that the light would burn for at least 30 hours. Ella might not have been able to help row, but she was efficient with that cane. She waved it around all night in hopes of signaling the rescue ship. The RMS Carpathia rescued them in the morning. From the ship, Ella and Marie could see the ocean was filled with icebergs and sheets of floating ice. Days after the sinking of the Titanic, Ella and Marie arrived safely back in New York. Ella stayed in the city to give her account to the American inquiry, while Marie sought solace at Briarcliff Manor. Ella joined her a few weeks later. The couple continued to live together, spending the majority of their time at their apartment in New York. Ella Holmes died on January 31, 1942, at the age of 85. She left a large part of her estate to Marie and made sure that Marie received $250 per month for the rest of her life. Marie Young died on July 27, 1959. She was 83 years old. Ella's cane was one of the few remaining artifacts from the Titanic. It was sold at an auction in 2019. All month we're talking about icons. For more information, find us on Facebook and Instagram at Womanica Podcast. Special thanks to Liz Kaplan, my favorite sister and co-creator. Talk to you tomorrow!
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