Plot Summary: The Last Mystery of the TITANIC….Whatever happened to Helen Loraine Allison
Submitted by Debrina Woods / February 2013
Helen Loraine Allison and Helen Loraine Kramer Identity Saga:
PROLOGUE: “In 1940, a woman named Helen Loraine Kramer claimed that she was Helen Loraine Allison
and that, at the last minute, her parents gave her up to a man named Hyde (whose identity is said to be
that of shipbuilder Thomas Andrews). However, the Allison family, (it is thought) did not accept her
claim. Eventually, Mrs. Kramer moved to the western United States and the Allison family never heard
from her again....”
CHILD FEARED LOST ON TITANIC REPORTED LIVING IN MICHIGAN
Chicago Tribune / Thursday 5 September 1940 Montreal, Que., Sept. 4 (AP)--A Montreal
family was stirred today by the prospect that Lorraine Allison, long believed to have
been drowned in the Titanic disaster of 1912, still is alive and residing in Berkley,
Mich., as Mrs. Laurence Kramer. The family is that of Mrs. G. B. Allison, sister-inlaw of Hudson J. C. Allison, Montreal financier, who was drowned with his wife when
the Titanic went down 28 years ago.
Also presumed to have been lost was Lorraine, the Allison’s' 3 year old daughter.
After the sinking, Allison's body was recovered, but those of his wife and child never
were found. Today it was learned Mrs. Kramer had written to the United States
department of justice claiming to be Lorraine.
Helen Loraine Kramer: Was my maternal grandmother. In 1940, she was a 31-year-old woman, former
registered nurse and married with 5 children, living in a nice suburb of Detroit, Michigan as Evangeline
Kramer, who wanted to go across the river to Windsor, Ontario-Canada to shop.
She believed herself to be an English woman married to an American but still requiring an alien
registration card and a copy of a birth certificate was needed to obtain one. She wrote to the man she
thought was her father (a Mr. James Hyde) and he wrote back:
“Dearest Loraine, Your story begins back in1912, when I set sail for America on the S.S. TITANIC. On the boat I
met a Mr. & Mrs. Hudson J. Allison. They had two small children with them - a 3-year-old little girl and her baby
brother. Then one night it happened. The ship struck and iceberg. Hundreds of people, many still in their
nightclothes were being hurried into lifeboats.
Plot Summary: The Last Mystery of the TITANIC….Whatever happened to Helen Loraine Allison
Submitted by Debrina Woods / February 2013
I looked up toward the rail. I saw Mr. Allison holding his little daughter in his arms. I tried to get out of the
lifeboat to give him my seat but was shoved back. He told me his wife and baby son were in another lifeboat. He
leaned far out over the rail and handed the little girl to me. He begged me to take care of her.
Before I could reply the lifeboat was lowered hurriedly into the water. As I sat there in the boat with her in my
arms, I looked back just in time to see the ship roll over on its side and sink.
Weeks later, I read the list of survivors. Neither Mr. nor Mrs. Allison’s names were on those lists. I took that little
girl back home to England and raised her as my own daughter. You are that little girl. Born Helen Loraine Allison
June 5th 1909.
So you see, I am not your father. I know you will want to find your birthplace. That, I imagine you will need for
your registration card. Your mother was an American. Your father Hudson Joshua Creighton Allison was either
an American or Canadian. He was listed on the passenger lists from both countries. With all the love in the world
– Your Foster Father, James Hyde”
This was of course startling and life altering information for her to receive. She hired an Attorney (Arthur
Flynn/Morrisburg Ontario) to investigate these claims and assist her with obtaining a birth certificate
and to guide her through the rest of the alien registration process.
She then went on the popular Grape Nuts cereal sponsored: We the People Radio show and pleaded
with its audience to assist her with locating any remaining relatives with whom she could reunite.
She was flooded with responses. From this information she & Mr. Flynn were able to contact a Mrs. G.B
(Lillian) Allison the widow of one of Hudson’s brothers, Percy Allison the youngest of Hudson’s brothers
and his wife…as well as Hudson’s fathers sister Maybelle Nieman (Aunt Maybelle) Dr. Blake & Ethel
Allison, Aunt Ida, Creighton Johnson Hudson’s Fathers brother and so many members of the Allison clan,
friends and business associates.
NOTE: At the time of Hudson Allison’s death he had amassed quite a substantial fortune….“In a bizarre
twist, Mrs. Kramer stated that on the rescue ship Carpathia, she shared a room with none other than
Thomas Andrews, the designer of the Titanic who himself had perished in the sinking. She further stated
that the director of the White Star Line, J. Bruce Ismay (who was later severely criticized for serious
structural problems on the ship as a means of cost efficiency, ordering Captain E.J. Smith to pick up
speed in icy waters, and then entering into a lifeboat when so many others died)
And George, the brother of Hudson Allison, together with his wife Lillian, (both of whom stood to gain
financially as the caretakers of baby Trevor) persuaded Andrews to go into hiding along with Loraine by
offering him periodic bribery payments as a means to buy his silence.
The events came to a head when the lawyer representing Mrs. Kramer died in the midst of the
proceedings, and when asked about the earth shattering evidence (such as the original of the first letter,
letters from Ismay and a diary from Hyde/Andrews) that he had been ready to produce, Mrs. Kramer
said that these papers had been lost just recently in a fire.
To add to the cloak and dagger scenario, young Trevor himself had died from ptomaine poisoning in
1929 at the age of eighteen on the eve of his inheritance...so when Mrs. Kramer released her story
eleven years later, it was the youngest brother of Hudson Allison, Percival (Percy) and his own family
who had reaped the financial benefits of the estate.
Plot Summary: The Last Mystery of the TITANIC….Whatever happened to Helen Loraine Allison
Submitted by Debrina Woods / February 2013
After the sudden death of the attorney Arthur Flynn and subsequent fire resulting in crucial lost
documents...she reportedly moved to the west coast of the United States, and was never heard from
again.
EPILOGUE: That is until now...
Recently discovered by Mrs. Kramer’s Granddaughter was a suitcase stored for over 70 years and only
opened on the Sunday following the 100th year anniversary of the disaster.
She was overwhelmed by what was discovered and never before seen publically inside...
• All the attorney's (Arthur Flynn) letters of his research and progress, and conclusions
• His references to as to WHO this foster father really was
• And WHY the possible ties to Ismay & Andrews exist and persist.
• All the letters from the Allison family in support of her claim,
• And acknowledging her resemblance to the family
• Photos from a locket she had
• Notes from the foster fathers diary
• Hundreds of letters with responses to her plea on the We The People Radio show
• The metal radio recording of the actual show
• The original transcript of her interview
Plus she wants to use DNA testing and has Allison descendants (and her mother is still alive) willing to
cooperate in this quest and any means at her disposal to further this cause. NOTE: All the
documentation is now in the final stages of chronological organization for presentation.
Thus far we have compiled:
• 16 binders full of original from the time documentation/photos
Ultimately, she and her family would like to garner enough support and attention to bring Helen Loraine
Allison/Kramer’s ashes to the grave site in Canada and lay her to final rest with her family all buried
there and from whom she has been separated from for 100 years.
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