In any
case, it seemed like the more Margaret tried the more she was
laughed at or made fun of. At one point she became the
"dinner conversation" for the "sacred 36"
parties, none of which she was ever invited to. She finally
decided that the problem was her speech, her manners, etc., and
hired people to help her to attain the polish necessary to fit
in. During this time her husband began to buy various properties
and interests in a number of mines. As a result of this he
traveled a great deal. When he was home, he tried to make
Margaret see that she should be concentrating her efforts on
being 
a good wife and mother, and entertaining their old
friends, poor mining folk like themselves. If he was home when
Margaret was giving one of her "high-falutin' parties"
he would go downstairs in the basement and sulk. He plainly
didn't like the "airs" that Margaret tried to put on.
As a result of Margaret's efforts at socializing and
her husband's attitudes towards it, they drifted apart. As a
result when she took her ill-fated trip on the Titanic Margaret
was by herself.
This picture is of Margaret and her daughter, Helen, in Cairo
Egypt early in 1912 before Margaret boarded the Titanic in
Cherbourg, France, with the Astors. Just prior to this photo an
Egyptian palm reader warned her of impending disaster when
crossing the water.
Molly returned to New York on May 29, 1912 to present Captain
A.H. 
Rostron a token of the esteem of the Titanic
survivors. She also had medals struck for the Carpathian's officers and crew, showing the ship plowing through icebergs
toward a tossing lifeboat.
Margaret liked to vacation in Florida and it was in
1925 that she survived another disaster, the destruction by
flames of the fashionable Breakers Hotel at Palm Beach.
Margaret continued to travel after the Titanic disaster. After
WWI she took a steamer to Norway, which caught fire several
hundred miles from Halifax, and she survived. A week later she
put off to sea again, and this time off the north coast of
Scotland, her ship hit a floating mine which the post-war
minesweepers had overlooked.
For all her ups and downs Margaret continued to lead an exciting
and colorful life until she died on October 25, 1932 in the
Barbizon-Club Hotel in New York at age 65.
