Grace Scott Bowen - Titanic First Class Passenger
Miss Grace Scott Bowen was a 45 year old first class passenger travelling home from Europe to America as part of her employment as a governess to the family of Arthur and Emily Ryerson. Along with the Ryerson family, she boarded Titanic at Cherbourg, France on 10th April 1912.
Grace Scott Bowen, the daughter of Samuel and Anna Bowen, was born in the United States on 9 March 1867, in Cooperstown, Otsego, New York. Working as a governess, she was travelling home to Cooperstown with Arthur Larned Ryerson, Emily Maria Ryerson, Emily Borie Ryerson, Susan Parker Ryerson, John Borie Ryerson and Victorine Chaudanson, a maid employed by the Ryerson family.
At the time Titanic collided with the iceberg, on 14th April 1912, Grace Scott Bowen was asleep in her cabin. She later said that she was awakened by the stillness and as soon as she awake she realized that Titanic was not moving. Along with all her travelling companions other than Arthur Ryerson, she left the ship in Lifeboat 4, one of the last lifeboats to leave the sinking ship.
Following the Titanic disaster, between 1922 to 1924, Grace Scott Bowen was employed as the principal of Susan Fenimore Cooper Foundation’s school, St Christina School, in Cooperstown. She then continued teaching at Knox Girls' School, again in Cooperstown, where she was head of the school’s Latin department. It is said that she enjoyed gardening.
Still a resident of Cooperstown, Grace Scott Bowen died on 3rd May 1945, aged 78, at Mary Imogene Bassett Hospital, Cooperstown, after suffering a stroke. She is buried at Lakewood Cemetery, Cooperstown, beside her family.
Related pages - Titanic's First Class Passengers, All Titanic Pages