CHICOPEE, Mass. — On April 21, the American Titanic Historical Society’s Centenary held its gala event in Chicopee, Mass.

It was an international affair: England’s Titanic Centenary was held the previous weekend, April 14-15, the date the RMS Titanic struck an iceberg and sank in the North Atlantic hundreds of miles off the coast of Newfoundland. A number of its speakers flew to the U.S. for the American Centenary.

Speakers originating in the United States included Dr. Julie Hedgepeth Williams, grandniece of second class passenger Albert Coldwell of Birmingham, Ala.; Dr. Paul Kurzman, great-grandson of first class passengers Isador and Ida Straus, founders of Macy’s, who perished on the Titanic; and Dr. Karen Lemke of Lisbon Falls, education professor at St. Joseph’s College in Standish.

In 1986, Lemke interviewed survivor Master Marshall Drew who was 8 years old when he and his aunt were rescued by the Carpathia at dawn on April 15. Lewke spoke at the event in the person of Mrs. James Drew, young Marshall’s aunt. Lula Drew lost her husband, James Drew, when Titanic foundered, broke apart and sank.

Lemke was the last one to interview the 82-year-old Drew, who passed away six weeks after their interview. With all survivors’ voices gone, it is important to keep first-hand survivors’ accounts alive as Titanic becomes more and more mythologized, said Lemke.

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