I included the last two photos of Lena's home in Denver because it's the only family connection I have to Lena or Hugh. I am in no way related to either of them. So, that said, my brother is a Titanic fanatic who often lurks on this sub. He doesn't post (I don't think he even has a Reddit account) but has hounded me to post this, so here goes.

  
Hugh Roscoe Rood, age 39, went down with the Titanic and his body was never recovered. His wife Lena could not accept her husband's death. She advertised in the New York Herald for a month after the sinking:

  
*INFORMATION WANTED concerning HUGH R. ROOD of Seattle, Wash. passenger on the Titanic, occupying cabin 32. Deck A. Grateful for any news of his survival or death, by telegraph at my expense. Mrs. HUGH ROOD, Hotel Plaza, New York City.*

  
Lena traveled to Halifax to search for Hugh. Not one to stand around wringing her hands, Lena shed the gowns and furs and went to work helping to prepare bodies for burial, consoling grieving families, and offering financial assistance to those less financially fortunate. She bought flowers for every casket and sent wreaths to every church holding memorial services. Ages ago, I found reference to a glowing article about her in the Halifax Herald, "The Amazing Denver Society Matron." Alas, the paper seems to no longer exists and I can't find the article anywhere online. If someone has a means to locate it, I'd love to read it.

  
Lena was extremely wealthy after selling her mining operations in Silverton, CO to Benjamin Guggenheim, famous for "going down like a gentleman" on the Titanic. Years earlier, Lena had dealt with a cave-in at her mine. Not leaving others to deal with the recovered bodies, she jumped in to help, prepping the bodies and consoling their widows. It must have been a trial-by-fire that prepped her well for the ordeal to come in 1912.

  
Here are a few oddities about Hugh and Lena's story . . .

  
Fellow Denverite Margaret Tobin Brown ("Maggie." She was never called Molly in her life; that was a Broadway / Hollywood invention) stated that she never saw Hugh on Board. The Denver Post ran with that and claimed Hugh was escaping a bad marriage by faking his death. Hugh was Lena's third marriage, so the paper called her "The Black Widow." Have you seen "The Unsinkable Molly Brown"? Most of those stories came from Lena's life, not Margaret Brown's. Lena eschewed high society and remained friends with her mining buddies (they called her Captain Jack, lol).



Poor Lena had the misfortune of living right next door to the Bonfils, who owned the Denver Post. They had great fun taking pot shots at Lena's lifestyle until she built a 12-foot high stone wall around her property to protect her privacy. The house and the wall still stand and you can take a look on Google Street View if you like. 1022 Humboldt St., Denver, CO



Not only did Lena now have to come to terms with her husband's death, she was forced to PROVE IT! She acquired attestations from passengers who had seen Hugh conversing with Benjamin Guggenheim and C.K. Hays in the smoking room the night of the sinking. Miss Margaret Hays (infamously boarding a lifeboat with her Pomeranian) and survivor Frederic Kimber Seward testified that Hugh was helping ladies onto lifeboat number 7.

  
Mr. Kimber would certainly know, since he helped himself to a seat with Miss Hays on said lifeboat. Number 7 was the first lifeboat launched. Rated to hold 65 passengers, it launched with only 28 people. 16 of those were men. Three of those 16, however, were crewmen ordered aboard by Mr. Lightoller. Two to man the oars, one to man the tiller. That still left the lifeboat more than half empty, with over half the passengers male. In Mr. Kimber's defense (sort of), most people were loathe to board the first lifeboat, preferring to stay aboard the liner that didn't appear (at that time) to be in immediate danger. I find it telling, though, that Hugh stayed aboard to help others when he could have just as easily hopped into the lifeboat.

  
In one of Robert Ballard's expeditions to explore the Titanic, he maneuvered the submersible into Cabin A-32, Hugh Rood's cabin. Let me tell ya, it hits hard to see the cabin of someone you know about who went down with the Titanic, but especially to see the bed he slept in. It was a lot more emotional than I expected.

  
My brother believes James Cameron also explored cabin A-32 but he can't swear to it. He thinks it was in "Ghosts of the Abyss." BTW, if you went up to the top of the grand staircase and made a left, that's where port side cabin A-32 is.

  
In a final wrinkle, Hugh Rood was immortalized as the murderer in the book "The Titanic Murders." The writer, who I will loosely call an "author," chose a name for his murderer from the First Class passenger list for whom he claimed he could find no references. Yeah, well, he didn't look too hard. AH. My poor horrified brother wrote a letter to the publisher saying Mr. Rood had surviving family and didn't deserve such disrespect. Although, I heavily edited that letter to take out all his bad language, LOL. Surprisingly, he actually received a reply from the publisher which can only be described as "gleefully dismissive." It came just short of telling him to GFY.

  
Anyway, sorry for the long write-up. Believe me, I could have gone on twice this length about Hugh and Lena. Especially Lena. The stories about her are somewhat legendary. My brother just felt that one of the Titanic passengers and his widow should not be as forgotten as they are. He's responsible for the details above. He may be a lurker but he reads all your posts here and says he is constantly learning something new, for which he says THANK YOU!



Hugh Roscoe Rood and his widow Lena Stoiber