When the RMS Titanic sank in the North Atlantic on April 15, 1912, Mary Davis Wilburn was only 28 years old.

She had boarded Titanic at Southampton as a second-class passenger, traveling to New York to visit her sister and brother-in-law. When the ship struck the iceberg, she made her way toward the boat deck and eventually reached Lifeboat 13. Her escape was frighteningly close: according to her later recollections, she was thrown into the lifeboat but fell into the freezing Atlantic before being pulled aboard by other survivors.

The Carpathia eventually rescued her and the other survivors. But Mary’s extraordinary story didn’t end that night. She returned to the United States, married John Wilburn in 1915, raised a family, and lived for another 75 years after the Titanic disaster. She remained in Syracuse, New York, where she occasionally spoke with historians and journalists about the catastrophe.

Then, in 1985, something extraordinary happened. The wreckage of Titanic was finally discovered on the ocean floor.

Mary was still alive.She was approximately 102 years old when humanity finally located the ship she had escaped more than seven decades earlier. Historical records indicate that only a small number of Titanic survivors were still alive when the wreck was found.

Mary eventually died on July 29, 1987, aged 104 years and 72 days. Guinness World Records recognizes her as the oldest person known to have survived the Titanic disaster.