The Back Page

In this issue Mary Swartley writes of Mennonite missionary Annie Funk, who died in the Titanic disaster in 1912 (“I Wish I’d Been There: Celebrating a lost life”)

Coincidentally, Opryland Hotel, the site of Nashville 2001, is currently hosting a traveling exhibit featuring artifacts recovered in recent years from the Titanic.

I wondered, is there any evidence of Annie’s presence on that ill-fated voyage? I had to find out.

As visitors entered the exhibit each of us was given a replica of a boarding pass with the name of one passenger on each pass. I wanted Annie’s pass, but was told I had to take the name I was given. We were to carry the name with us through the exhibit. In the final exhibit room the all the passengers were listed on a wall—those who survived and those who didn’t. And there it was, on the wall of casualties of second class passengers: Annie C. Funk.

The exhibit was well done—even impressive. It told the story of the building of the ship, it’s voyage, the disaster, and the recovery of the artifacts. At the end of the tour, I spoke with a cashier in the gift shop. When I told her the story of Annie Funk, she asked would I like to have her boarding pass?
Of course, I would! She shuffled through a new pack of passes in alphabetical order. There it was: “Miss Annie C. Funk.”

I read the replica reflectively, reverently. What were Annie’s thoughts as she carried her boarding pass on board the great “floating palace of the seas,” which was said to be virtually indestructible? Surely the grandeur of the ship was shadowed by thoughts of her mother’s health. What were her final thoughts? Her last words? And what impact would this event have on her beloved students in India? On her family? On those who hear the story nearly 90 years later?

---

-jes

---

Mennonite Historical Bulletin, July 2001