Probably the most famous survivor of the Titanic disaster was American socialite, philanthropist, and activist Margaret Brown, who died on October 16, 1932, at the age of 65.

Her fame is largely due to a play and a film both called The Unsinkable Molly Brown. While this glossy, fictionalised account is a fitting tribute to the feisty, indefatigable spirit of Margaret Brown it has little basis in reality. For a start, Margaret was never known as "Molly" though her friends called her Maggie.

Margaret Tobin was born in Hannibal, Missouri, on 18 July, 1867, one of four children of Irish immigrants John and Johanna Tobin. She also had two half sisters. Although they were poor and lived in a one-bedroomed frame house, her parents instilled in her the importance of education and equality - lessons that never left her.

Margaret had to leave school at 13 and start work in a factory. Keen to improve her lot, in her late teens she moved to Leadville, Colorado, with one of her half-sisters and brother Daniel and began to work in a local department store. Here she became an active player in community life. She joined the church and worked in a soup kitchen - always acutely aware of the plight of the poor and looking for ways to help.

Soon she met John Joseph Brown (always known as J.J.) an enterprising, self-educated mining engineer. They married on September 1, 1886. J.J. was 31 years old and Margaret was barely 19. The Browns had two children: Lawrence Palmer Brown ("Larry"), born in 1887 and Catherine Ellen Brown ("Helen"), born in 1889.

Their modest family life changed for ever after the silver crash of 1893. JJ had the idea and the engineering knowledge to pioneer a way of mining gold rather than silver from Ibex Mining Company's Little Jonny mine. He was rewarded with 12,500 shares of stock and a seat on the board.

Their new-found wealth saw them move to Denver, Colorado, which became their long-term home and is now a museum.

Margaret became a founding member of the Denver Woman's Club, part of a nationwide network of clubs which fought for better education for all, votes for women and human rights.

She successfully raised funds to build the Cathedral of Immaculate Conception and St. Joseph's Hospital, and worked to help establish the first Juvenile Court in the country.

She constantly advanced her own knowledge through studying literature, languages and drama. As well as raising her own children she raised the three daughters of her brother Daniel after the death of their mother.

Margaret was one of the first women in the United States to run for political office - even before women had the vote.

She also loved travel and it was a trip around Europe with daughter Helen that led to her being on board the Titanic. After receiving word that her grandson was ill back in America, Margaret boarded the first available ship - the Titanic - when it stopped in France. Helen, who was studying in France, decided to stay behind.

After the ship struck the iceberg, Margaret helped load others into lifeboats and eventually was forced to board lifeboat six herself. She and the other women in lifeboat six worked together to row and keep everyone's spirits up.

After a few hours the Carpathia picked up the survivors and by the time it reached New York, Margaret - assisted by her knowledge of several foreign languages - had helped establish a survivor's committee, been elected as chair, and raised almost $10,000 for those left destitute by the tragedy from other wealthy survivors.

She continued to help survivors and pay tribute to victims throughout her life.

But her new-found fame as a Titanic survivor helped her promote the issues she felt most deeply about — womens' rights, fair employment laws, education and historic preservation.

During World War I, she helped wounded French and American soldiers. She was awarded the French Legion of Honour and in her later years she studied drama and took up acting.

The myth of The Unsinkable Molly Brown began in the 1930s with a colourful, highly fictional account of her life in a romance magazine that was turned into a booklet. This story was broadcast on radio during the 1940s and became the basis for a Broadway play which eventually became a 1964 MGM movie starring Debbie Reynolds. Tammy Grimes won a Tony award for her performance as 'Molly' on Broadway in 1960. Marilu Henner played Brown in a 1996 made-for-TV miniseries, and Kathy Bates played her in the 1997 film Titanic.

In 1960, a capsule launched in the Gemini 3 space mission was unofficially named the "Molly Brown". This was a humorous reference to Gus Grissom's previous incident with a Mercury capsule that sank in the Indian Ocean during recovery operations.