Whoa! Whoa! Whoa! That’s not exactly true. Everyone did not love Margaret Tobin Brown.  At least not at first.  In fact, when she first came onto the radar of the upper class she aspired to, she was rounded rejected.  Before the sinking of the Titanic, she was derogatively  referred to as ’new money,’ and labeled a brazen, uncouth social climber.  In part, her critics were right.  Margaret Tobin Brown was brazen.  She went after the social position she craved with unabashed zeal. She spared no expense in money and time wooing the members and gatekeepers of the Social Register.  She gave lavish parties, held exquisite tea parties, joined the “right” clubs and organizations.  But it was all to no avail.  She was still looked down on by the social elite, until the sinking of the Titanic. Suddenly, she became the “unsinkable Molly Brown.” It was almost as if she’d died that fateful night on the Atlantic and been reborn.  All at once, her generous spirit and good works started to pay off, when what she did was not much different from what she’d always done.  An energetic, sentimental woman by nature, she became one of the main movers and shakers in the effort to assist the Titanic’s survivors. She used her persuasive abilities to galvanize the charities she belonged to to contribute aid to the survivors, she goaded the organizations she belonged to to donate money to the effort and convinced many an idle rich woman to get off her duff and lend a much needed helping hand to their sisters who had suffered through the tragedy or lost loved ones in it.  Yes, in many ways, Margaret Tobin Brown’s actions were not much different than they have been before the Titanic tragedy.  But she was no one’s fool.  She realized that she was at the right place at the right time and took advantage of it.  By helping to ease the suffering of others, she also helped herself. And at the time, no one with  an ounce of decency could accuse her of opportunism.  The upper classes had lost friends and loved ones in the sinking too. It softened their hearts, caused them if only momentarily to realize that all souls are equal under God.  Because of the Titanic tragedy, they were ready and willing to see Margaret Tobin Brown in a new, more accepting light.  Her contributions to the aid of the Titanic’s survivors was duly noticed by those she most wanted to be noticed by.  Finally, she earned a seat in their ranks and a place in their hearts, and was fittingly canonized “The Unsinkable Molly Brown.”