Catherine Uhlmyer Connelly (April 4, 1893 – October 17, 2002) was the second-to-last, and the longest-lived survivor of the ''

General Slocum The PS ''General Slocum''"PS" stands for " Paddle Steamer" was a sidewheel passenger steamboat built in Brooklyn, New York, in 1891. During her service history, she was involved in a number of mishaps, including multiple groundings and collisi ...

'' fire of June 15, 1904.

Biography

She was born as Catherine Uhlmyer in

Manhattan, New York Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. stat ...

on April 4, 1893. Her father died before she was a year old, and her mother, Veronica, married John Gallagher. On June 15, 1904 when she was 11 years old, she was one of the passengers aboard the ''General Slocum'' when it caught fire on the

East River The East River is a saltwater tidal estuary in New York City. The waterway, which is actually not a river despite its name, connects Upper New York Bay on its south end to Long Island Sound on its north end. It separates the borough of Que ...

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the U ...

. She remembered a boy shouting "fire" while a brass band was playing on the deck of the ship to entertain the travelers. She recounted the images of mothers and children with their clothing on fire drowning in the rough waters of

Hell Gate Hell Gate is a narrow tidal strait in the East River in New York City. It separates Astoria, Queens, from Randall's and Wards Islands. Etymology The name "Hell Gate" is a corruption of the Dutch phrase ''Hellegat'' (it first appeared on ...

. Others were killed as they were drawn into the blades of the paddlewheel. The total death count was 1,021 of the 1,331 passengers who were on a Sunday school outing, and among the victims were her mother, her nine-year-old brother Walter, and her 9-month-old sister Agnes. "Sometimes he is very cruel, the man upstairs," she said in her interview with ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' on May 24, 1989, when she was already 96. This remained the largest single disaster in New York until the

September 11, 2001 attacks The September 11 attacks, commonly known as 9/11, were four coordinated suicide terrorist attacks carried out by al-Qaeda against the United States on Tuesday, September 11, 2001. That morning, nineteen terrorists hijacked four commerc ...

. In 1913, she married Thomas Connelly, a truck driver. She had 11 children. Ten of them were born at home. Only two were alive at the time of her death, Jeanette Connelly Meehan, who lived in

Goshen, New York Goshen is a town in Orange County, New York, United States. The population was 13,687 at the 2010 census. The town is named after the Biblical Land of Goshen. It contains a village also called Goshen, which is the county seat of Orange Count ...

, and Elizabeth Gallagher Reilly, who lived in

Greenwich, Connecticut Greenwich (, ) is a New England town, town in southwestern Fairfield County, Connecticut, United States. At the 2020 United States Census, 2020 census, the town had a total population of 63,518. The largest town on Connecticut's Gold Coast (Conne ...

. She was also survived by 27 grandchildren, 30 great-grandchildren and 7 great-great-grandchildren. She lived in a Manhattan apartment by herself until she was 102. She then moved to a nursing home in

Connecticut Connecticut () is the southernmost state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, New York to the west, and Long Island Sound to the south. Its cap ...

to be closer to her daughter Elizabeth. She died on October 17, 2002 aged 109.

References

External links

General Slocum WebsiteFindagrave: Catherine Uhlmyer
{{DEFAULTSORT:Uhlmyer, Catherine 1893 births 2002 deaths American centenarians PS General Slocum People from Wilton, Connecticut People from Manhattan Women centenarians

Biography

See also

References

External links