Titanic locket's owner may have been maid

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HEMPFIELD, Pa., June 4 (UPI) -- A Pennsylvania family who obtained a locket believed to have belonged to a Titanic survivor said they may have identified the original owner.

Betty and Buz Carbone of Hempfield said their son bought the locket, which bears the letters "AMA" or "AWA" in intricate script, from an antiques dealer about 15 years ago and they now believe the item originally belonged to Annie Moore Ward of Philadelphia, who served as a maid for a first-class passenger on the Titanic in April 1912 and survived the sinking of the ship, the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review reported Monday.

Ward, who was 38 at the time of the passenger liner's sinking, died in 1955.

The Carbones' daughter, Beth Evangeliste of Jeannette, said Ward is "the only one that came close" to fitting the initials on the locket, which contained a slip of paper reading, "Wreck of the Titanic, April 15th, 1912. Loss of life 1645."

The Carbones, who have an extensive collection of Titanic memorabilia, said the number on the slip of paper is incorrect, as the official death count from the sinking was 1,514.

Beth Evangeliste said she plans to continue her research into the locket's origins.

"I'm 90 percent sure," she said of the identity of the locket's original owner, "but I want to be 100 percent sure."