Archival records show that Wendy Rush, the wife of OceanGateCEO Stockton Rush, is the great-great-granddaughter of Isidor and Ida Straus, The New York Times reported today. Straus was a retailing magnate who co-owned Macy’s department store.
Born Wendy Hollings Weil, Wendy Rush wed Stockton Rush in 1986, according to their wedding announcement. The Times said it could not immediately reach Wendy Rush for additional comment.
The US Coast Guard today announced that Stockton Rush and the other four men aboard the submersible died when the craft imploded this week in the North Atlantic.
Isidor and Ida Straus have become known for a Titanic story about reportedly choosing to go down together on the sinking ship, arm in arm. Survivors said Isidor Straus would not get on a lifeboat while women and children were still waiting to be rescued, and his wife of four decades declared she would not abandon her husband.
The story of Isidor and Ida Straus was featured in James Cameron's film version of the Titanic story.
Director James Cameron immortalised a fictionalised version of their story in his 1997 movie about the tragedy, which shows a shot of an older couple embracing in bed as waters rise.
The newspaper said Wendy Rush is descended from one of the Strauses’ daughters, Minnie. She married Dr Richard Weil in 1905 and their son, Richard Weil jnr, Wendy Rush’s grandfather, was later president of Macy’s New York.
Isidor Straus’s body was found at sea several weeks after the disaster, according to New York Times archives. Ida Straus’s remains were not recovered.
