Margaret Tobin Brown (Image courtesy the Library of Congress)
As we approach the 100th anniversary of the sinking of the RMS Titanic in 2012, we note that several Newport names are associated with this event, such as Astor and Widener. Among the other Newport passengers was Denver socialite and mining heiress Margaret Tobin Brown (1867-1932), later popularly labeled “The Unsinkable Molly Brown.” Margaret Brown summered in Newport from 1909-1920 at the Reitz Cottage and Club Cottage, operated by the Muenchinger – King Hotel. She was a close friend of Alva Vanderbilt Belmont and was an integral pert of the great suffrage conference at Marble House in 1914.
Her rental cottages are now the site of the Muenchinger-King parking lot on Bellevue Avenue and Redwood Street. She was causally known as Maggie, never Molly, which was the invention of Hollywood in 1961.
Titanic beginning a day of sea trials, April 2, 1912 (Image courtesy the National Archives)