After Isidor and Ida Straus’s deaths, Isidor’s cousin Mrs. Samuel Bessinger said: “Theirs was the love of husband and wife so beautiful among old couples who have weathered life’s storms together. Two more devoted lovers could scarcely be found.”
Around 11:40 on the night of April 14, 1912, the RMS Titanic struck an iceberg and began sinking. As the ship went down in the early morning hours of April 15, a number of passengers aboard the lifeboats that allowed an escape from certain death observed 67-year-old Isidor Straus and his 63-year-old wife, Ida, together on the ship’s deck. After interviewing many of the survivors, the New York Tribune published this account of their final moments:
