Wife of missing Titanic submarine pilot a descendant of real-life victims depicted in 1997 film
KUALA LUMPUR, June 22 — The wife of the OceanGate CEO, who was piloting the missing Titanic tourist submersible, is a descendant of a wealthy New York couple who were first class passengers on the ill-fated vessel when it hit an iceberg in 1912.
Wendy Rush is the wife of Stockton Rush, one of the five people trapped in a Titan sub that went missing on Sunday after a trip to visit the Titanic wreckage, reported Daily Mail.
Wendy’s great-great-grandparents, Isidor and Ida Straus, died in the 1912 disaster.
Isidor was a co-founder of Macy’s, a famous American department store.
He and his wife were featured in James Cameron’s 1997 film Titanic as the sweet old couple locked in their final embrace on a bed while waiting for the inevitable end as water rose around them.
The pair had in real life been offered seats on a lifeboat but Isidor had refused, saying he would not go until all the women and children had made their way off the ship.
Survivors reported seeing Ida refuse to get on a lifeboat too, opting to remain with her husband of 40 years.
She gave her mink coat to her maid, Ellen Bird to keep her warm as she sailed away on the lifeboat.
Isidor Straus’ body was found at sea roughly two weeks after the Titanic sank, New York Times archives show.
Ida Straus’ remains have never been recovered.
Wendy Rush, born Wendy Hollings Weil, who married engineer and entrepreneur Stockton Rush in 1986 is a descendant of Isidor and Ida Straus’ daughter Minnie, who married Dr Richard Weil in 1905.
Their son, Richard Weil Jr, later served as president of Macy’s New York, and his son, Dr Richard Weil III, is Wendy Rush’s father, The New York Times reported.
Wendy Rush, who graduated from Princeton University, has visited the Titanic wreckage three times with her husband’s company in the last two years and works as OceanGate’s communications director.
Stockton Rush, 61, founded OceanGate in 2009.
The Seattle-born, Princeton-educated aeronautical engineer worked on fighter jets and initially hoped to go to Mars before switching his attention to the sea.
