| Mary Plamondon Saloon Passenger Lost |
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 image credit: Daily Missoulian, Monday, 17 May 1915. |
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| Born | Mary Letitia Mackin 15 October 1859 Rochester, New Jersey, United States |
| Died | 7 May 1915 (age 58) At sea |
| Age on Lusitania | 58 |
| Ticket number | 20697 |
| Cabin number | B 18 |
| Traveling with | Charles Plamondon (husband) |
| Body Number | 163 |
| Interred | Calvary Cemetery, Evanston, Illinois, United States |
| Citizenship | United States |
| Residence | Chicago, Illinois, United States |
| Spouse(s) | Charles Ambrose Plamondon (1879 – 1915, their deaths) |
Mary Plamondon (1859 – 1915), 58, of Chicago, Illinois was the wife of Charles Ambrose Plamondon, President of Plamondon Manufacturing Company. Mary and her husband were passengers on Lusitania‘s last crossing. Both Mary and Charles were lost in the sinking.
Life
Mary Plamondon was born Mary Letitia Mackin on 15 October 1859 in Rochester, New Jersey. She married Charles Plamondon on 6 May 1879. The Plamondon’s home address was 1344 Aster Street, Chicago. They had five children: Charles Ambrose Plamondon, Jr., Harold Mackin Plamondon, Blanche Plamondon (later Mrs. John Henry Smith of Newark, New Jersey), Charlotte E. Plamondon (Mrs. Allen B. Ripley), and Marie Plamondon.
Mary Plamondon was an active member of the Chicago community and was a member of the Women’s Athletic Club. She was also served alongside Edith Ogden Harrison, author and wife of Chicago Mayor Carter H. Harrison, Jr., on the board of the Women’s Reception Committee.
Lusitania
On 1 May 1915, Charles and Mary Plamondon boarded Lusitania. Charles was traveling on business to London, Manchester, and Dublin. Mary did not want Charles to go alone and booked passage to cross with him. Also traveling with them would be actress Winifred Arthur Jones, the daughter of playwright Henry Arthur Jones. She cancelled just before the ship sailed. None of Charles and Mary’s children traveled with them on board Lusitania.
Newsreel footage of Lusitania‘s last departure show Charles and Mary Plamondon at the pier, arriving in a taxi and paying for their ride.
The couple celebrated their 36th wedding anniversary while on board Lusitania. Charles kept a pocket diary during the voyage, with notation such as, “Thursday, May 6, Lusitania, 488 miles: Pleasant weather, sunshine all day. Evening concert for sailors’ and seamen’s homes.” He also noted seeing the Irish coast from Lusitania around 11 am, although the ship actually approached the coat at about noon. This confusion may have come from the setting of the clocks one hour ahead each day.
Both Charles and his wife Mary were lost in the sinking. Their remains were washed up on the Irish coast, blackened with coal dust, suggesting that they had been sucked into one of the funnels. Both bodies were recovered and identified. The bodies arrived back in New York on Monday, 24 May 1915 aboard the ocean liner New York.
Family
Their daughter Charlotte and niece Emily survived the Iroquois Theater fire of Chicago in 1903. More than 600 people were killed, but they were fortunate to suffer only slight smoke inhalation.
Charles’ cousin Edwin K. Plamondon, the department manager of the Western Electric Company, was on board the excursion ship SS Eastland in July 1915 with his wife Susan Byrne Plamondon and his daughters Marie and Irene, when the boat capsized and killed 800 people. Susan was among the lost.
Related pages
Charles and Mary Plamondon at the Mixed Claims Commission
Contributors:
Judith Tavares
References:
“Charles Plamondon,” Wikipedia: Die freie Enzyklopädie. <http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Plamondon> (German)
Daily Missoulian, Monday, 17 May 1915.
Hickey, Des and Gus Smith. Seven Days to Disaster. G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1981.
Hoehling, A. A. and Mary Hoehling. The Last Voyage of the Lusitania. Madison Books, 1956.
Providence Journal, Monday 10 May 1915.
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