Last U.S. Titanic survivor dies at 99

Published 9:00 pm Sunday, May 7, 2006

BOSTON – Lillian Asplund, the last American survivor of the April 15, 1912, sinking of the Titanic, has died, a funeral home said Sunday. She was 99.

Asplund, who was 5 years old, lost her father and three brothers when the ship sank in the North Atlantic. Her mother and one brother survived.

She died Saturday at her home in Shrewsbury, said Ronald Johnson of the Nordgren Memorial Chapel in Worcester, Mass.

Asplund was the last Titanic survivor with actual memories of the sinking, but she rarely spoke about the events.