Rich's Bakeshop Coconut Cake

Rich's and its Magnolia Room restaurant are no more, but here is one of the recipes that made it famous.

RICH'S BAKESHOP YELLOW CAKE:

Shortening and flour for pans

2 1/4 cups cake flour (if you can't find cake flour, use White Lily brand all-purpose flour)

1 teaspoon salt

1 tablespoon baking powder

1 tablespoon powdered milk

1/2 cup water

2/3 cup liquid milk (2 percent or whole)

3/4 cup vegetable shortening

1 1/4 cups granulated sugar

3 large eggs




RICH'S BAKESHOP ICING:


1/2 cup vegetable shortening

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 teaspoon salt

1 pound confectioners' sugar

2 tablespoons powdered milk

1/2 cup water (for dissolving milk powder)


RICH'S COCONUT FILLING:
2 pounds frozen shredded coconut (sweetened or unsweetened --- recipe tested with unsweetened), divided
2 tablespoons water
2 tablespoons granulated sugar


Instructions:
TO MAKE THE YELLOW CAKE LAYERS:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Prepare cake pans by lightly greasing with shortening, then dusting with flour. In a large bowl, mix the flour, salt and baking powder. Set aside. In a small bowl or measuring cup, stir the powdered milk into the water and mix until dissolved. Combine the liquid milk with the powdered milk/water mixture and set aside. In the bowl of an electric mixer, cream together the shortening and the sugar until fluffy. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add about half the flour mixture, beating until just incorporated, and then half the milk mixture, again beating until just incorporated. Repeat this step, adding the remaining flour with the remaining liquid, and beat until just smooth (about 1 minute). Be sure to scrape down the sides of the bowls once or twice during the mixing. Pour the batter into the prepared cake pans and bake for about 20 to 30 minutes. The cooking time will vary depending on how many cake pans you use and how full they are. The cake is done when it springs back when lightly pressed near the center with your finger. Allow the cake to cool for a few minutes in the pan, and then turn out onto cooling racks to cool completely.


TO MAKE ICING:

In a mixing bowl, using an electric mixer, combine the vegetable shortening, vanilla and salt and cream together until incorporated. Slowly add the confectioners' sugar until it forms a very thick consistency. Dissolve the powdered milk in the water and gradually add, just 1 or 2 tablespoons at a time, until the icing is a nice, spreadable consistency.



TO ASSEMBLE CAKE:

Make filling: In a large bowl, thaw the frozen coconut. Set aside. Take 1 1/2 cups of the coconut and place in a smaller bowl.
Combine the water and sugar and pour over this smaller bowl of coconut. This should be very moist but not soupy. Place one layer of the yellow cake on a cake plate and spread with icing. Spoon the moistened coconut over that. Place the next layer on top and spread with icing, spooning the moistened coconut over it. Continue this process until all your layers are filled; however, don't put the moist filling on the very top of the last layer, as it will be iced. Next, cover the entire cake with the icing. Make sure to use a thick coating of icing to eliminate any of the cake showing through. Take handfuls of the dry, thawed coconut and press the flakes into the icing. You may want to put a tray underneath to catch any coconut that falls as you do this. Continue pressing dry, flaky coconut all over the cake until it is completely covered. Chill for about 1 hour to set (it helps the coconut to stay), and then serve.

Knucksie K's four in one Inning

July 29, 1977 - Braves knuckle ball pitcher Phil Niekro struck out four Pittsburgh Pirates in one inning - the first pitcher in Brave history to do so. It's possible because baseball rules provide that if a catcher fails to catch the ball on a batter's third strike, that batter can try to make first base. In such a case, if the batter makes first base, the pitcher is credited with a strike out, but the out doesn't count against the team at bat.

Smothered and Scattered

Another one of Metro Atlanta's claim to fame... The Waffle House. What Atlanta partier or concert goer hasn't eaten at a Waffle House in the middle of the night, I've heard they are also open during the day. There is never a dull moment at the Waffle House, someone always has a story to tell you or a drama unfolds right before your eyes, like true life dinner theater. ANYWAY the first Waffle House opened it's doors labor day weekend in 1955 at 1955 at 2719 East College Avenue in Avondale Estates. The restaurant was conceived and founded by two neighbors, Joe Roger, Sr. and Tom Forkner, they decided Avondale Estates needed a 24-hour restaurant. Today, the chain they started has 1600 restaurants in 25 states.

Willie B.

Willie B. the silverback Gorilla who was born in the wild in Africa, came to the Grant Park Zoo as a baby in 1961 and lived in Atlanta for 39 years, until his death in February of 2000. For 27 years, Willie B. lived in a dingy concrete room, watched soaps and played on his tire swing. In the 1980s, Atlanta's zoo was known as one of the country's worst, and it lost its accreditation. As a way to modernize the facilities, Willie B. was moved into fancy indoor-outdoor digs and allowed to socialize and raise a family. He fathered five gorilla babies at Zoo Atlanta: Kudzoo, Olympia, Sukari, Kidogo, and Lulu. Kidogo, the only male offspring, took on the name Willie B., Jr. after his father died, taking his place as the heir. When he died at the age of 41, he was the oldest Gorilla in the United States to have fathered offspring. 8,000+ attended the memorial ceremony held in his honor, and the zoo now has a life-size bronze statue of him on permanent display outside the Gorilla exhibit. His remains were cremated. 80% of his remains were kept in a bronze box in the bronze statue at Zoo Atlanta and the other 20% were flown back to the African jungle.

Sex Pistols first U.S. appearance

The Great Southeast Music Hall gained international notoriety when Alex Cooley booked the first U.S. appearance of the Sex Pistols, Jan. 5, 1978. The Hall was packed minutes after the doors open at 7:00 p.m. Among the attendees that night are 5 television crews, approximately 50 members of the press, several police officers and vice squads from both Atlanta and Memphis(where they would perform the next night)... after a local band called Cruisomatic opens the Pistols take the stage at about 10:15 p.m.; Rotten asks, "Where's My Beer?"... "You can all stop staring at us now," Rotten says after opening with "God Save the Queen," "We're ugly and we know it... See what kind of fine upstanding youth England is chucking out these days?"...About 60% of the audience is standing and doing an Americanized version of the Pogo throughout, 20% of the audience is nasty, yelling yelling and throwing things at the band, and 20% of the crowd clearly does not know what on earth is going on... And that's Punk Rock!! Nine days later, Rotten would play his last show with the Pistols.
Ten months later, Sid Vicious would be arrested for the murder of his girlfriend, Nancy Spungen. After Sid spent some time in Riker's Island Prison, McLaren convinced Virgin Records to put up the $50,000 to bail Sid out. At a party celebrating his release on Feb. 2, 1979, Sid Vicious died from an overdose of heroin.

Atlanta's OG

Michael Thevis was born in 1932 in Raleigh, North Carolina, where he was raised by his Greek Orthodox grandparents. They had emigrated from Greece and brought up young Michael strictly and in the ways of the church, keeping him in from play to teach him the value of work. In 1949 Michael left home and moved to Atlanta, where he enrolled at Georgia Tech and began to take engineering courses. He couldn't afford to stay in school, though, and dropped out in 1950 to run a newsstand. By 1960 little had changed. He was married with three children, but his newsstand job was barely covering the cost of living. The Thevis family was forced out of their apartment one month when he could no longer afford to pay the rent, which had recently been raised to $57. Thevis' entry into criminal enterprises began one day while going over the books for his newsstand. He discovered that, while Playboy only accounted for 10% of his sales, it was almost solely responsible for his turning a profit. He went underground, and while overtly selling only tame nudie publications, he worked with gangster and pornographer Kenneth "Kenny the Jap" Hanna to make contacts with customers whose interests were far more suspect. Soon Thevis was using the newsstand to deal in black market pornography including hardcore bondage, rape, bestiality and, eventually, child porn. Business boomed. In the last half of 1967s Hanna introduced Thevis to a fellow gangster, Roger Dean Underhill, a low-ranking associate of the Gambino organized-crime family. Together Underhill and Thevis would move the small underground porn stand to the next level. Underhill recalled machines he'd seen at fairs and in supermarkets that played cartoons to keep children occupied. Using this concept, Underhill and Thevis developed some of the first sexually oriented peep booths in America. They set up manufacturing companies and began to distribute the peep booths to locations all over America, from New York to Pasadena, California, to locations ranging from airport bars to the sex shops on 42nd Street in New York City's Times Square. By the end of the 1970s the phrases "loop" and "peep booth" would be synonymous with sleazy porn. One of Thevis' first tastes of competition came from Nat Bailen, owner and founder of Urban Industries, which manufactured peep booths. In the early 1960s Bailen had invented peep booths to show children's cartoons on. He publicly spoke out against Thevis for turning his creation into a smut machine. In April of 1970 Urban Industries was burnt to the ground: fire investigators ruled it an arson. Another major crime linking Thevis to the world of organized crime came in November of 1970, when Kenny Hanna turned up murdered. Investigating the case, the FBI turned up Thevis' name. What began as a routine check into what the FBI believed was one more murdered gangster ended with the realization that they had stumbled onto the man who'd become responsible for distributing 40% of the United States' pornography, legal and illegal. In addition to his black-market and peep-show enterprises, he also owned nearly 500 adult bookstores and X-rated movie theaters across the country. The government estimated his annual income at $100 million. Word reached Thevis that he was under investigation. Aware that gangsters Al Capone and Dutch Schultz were brought down by federal investigations into their finances, Thevis began to branch out into legitimate enterprises, not only to account for his illegal income, but to launder some of it and make even more cash in the process. His peep booths were manufactured by one of his legitimate fronts, Cinematics. He owned General Recording Corp., a music distributor, and began to produce movies. He fronted the cash for Zhui ming qiang (1971), and anonymously put up money for one of Oliver Stone's earliest films, Seizure (1974). In 1973, Roger Dean Underhill was present when James Mayes, an employee of Cinematics, came to Thevis asking for a raise. Thevis was incensed, and shot Mayes to death. Shortly thereafter, Underhill was arrested during a routine traffic stop when the alert officer found a small cache of stolen guns in Underhill's car. Underhill was booked on charges of possession of stolen weapons and transporting stolen property across state lines; conviction meant a long stretch in federal prison. Sensing a potential breakthrough in their investigation of Thevis, the FBI got involved, offering Underhill leniency in exchange for his help in bringing down Thevis. Underhill was getting no assistance from the mob; he was too low-ranking to be seen as anything more than a liability, so he agreed to turn states' evidence. Over the next three years he helped the FBI in building charges against Thevis, and revealed in a sworn affidavit that Thevis had given him the order to set the fire that burned down Urban Industries. He further revealed that he was acting as backup when Thevis murdered Kenny Hanna, and that he was present during the murder of James Mayes. The FBI also learned about crimes they had never linked Thevis to, including the bombing of one of Thevis' competitors in Fayeteville, Kentucky, and his extortion of a small-time pornographer in Houston. Meanwhile, Thevis continued to get richer, funding another movie, Poor Pretty Eddie (1975), and extending the reaches of his porn empire into Florida. The beginning of the end for Thevis came in 1976, when he was convicted of conspiracy to commit arson, and distribution of obscene materials; Underhill personally testified against his former partner. Thevis was sentenced to eight years and six months in prison and ordered to pay $650,000 to Nat Bailen, the employees of Urban Industries, and Urban Industries' insurance companies. In prison Thevis received word that his wife had divorced him and that the IRS had teamed up with the FBI to investigate him for financial fraud. The icing on the cake came when Thevis was indicted in Florida on various charges under the RICO statutes, thanks largely in part to Roger Dean Underhill. Thevis escaped from prison in 1978 and was immediately placed on the FBI's top ten most wanted list. Word got to the FBI that Thevis had contacted old associates in the mob and arranged for a contract to be put on Underhill's life as revenge his betrayal. Underhill became one of the most sought-after gangsters in America, as word spread to every wiseguy and gunman that an "open contract" had been placed on him--in other words, no specific hitman was tasked with the job; whoever could prove they killed Underhill would receive a substantial reward. No one ever got to collect, though, because Thevis personally tracked down Underhill himself. Underhill was entertaining a friend, street tough Isaac Galanti, in October of 1978 when Thevis showed up at the front door and killed both men with a shotgun. Thevis was apprehended shortly after the murders and taken for holding to a maximum security facility in Connecticut. Awaiting his RICO trial in Florida, he tried to establish a "prison rep" by bragging to other prisoners about his various murders, including Underhill and Galanti. His cellmate contacted authorities. In 1980, Michael Thevis, the "Scarface of Porn," who had once made $100 million a year and owned nearly half of the hardcore porn industry, was convicted of the murders of Isaac Galanti and Roger Dean Underhill. He was sentenced to 28 years to life, and became eligible for parole in 1998.
Source: IMDb Mini Biography By: Jojo Mac

August 13, 1910

Gov. Joseph M. Brown signed Georgia's first law regulating the use of automobiles. Among the provisions, every vehicle had to be registered with the Secretary of State, had to have a license plate bearing the registration number, and had to have at least one headlight capable of projecting a beam 100 feet at least one red taillight illuminating the license plate. The law mandated no specific highway speed limit except to provide that driving speed must be "reasonable and proper." However, vehicles had to slow to 6 miles per hour when approaching a bridge, sharp curve, or intersection The minimum driving age was set at 16, unless a minor had a year's experience driving and was accompanied by the owner of the vehicle. And, the law made it illegal to drive while intoxicated.

Devil Went Down To Georgia

Born in Fannin County in March of 1868, Pioneer hillbilly fiddler John Carson made his way out of the North Georgia Mountains to Atlanta. Where when he wasn't working in the cotton mills, painting houses, or making moonshine, he made a living playin' and passin' the hat. Startin' 'bout 1913, the annual fiddlers' conventions at the City Auditorium in downtown Atlanta drew large crowds of listeners and John became a principal figure at annual fiddlers' convention, seven times being named Fiddler Champion of Georgia. In April 1922 WSB, the south's first Radio station went on air. Now short time later, September I believe, Fiddlin' John Carson walk in to its studios. He announced to engineer Lambdin Kay, "that he would like to have a try at the newfangled contraption." Kay could see no reason not to, so he obliged him. Fiddlin' John performed "Little Old Log Cabin in the Lane." This was the first of what we know today as "country music" to be broadcast by radio. How much did he make for this historic broadcast you ask? A snort from Lambdin Kay's bottle of whiskey! The folks at WSB liked him so much, that they gave him the only regularly scheduled 10pm-radio program in the country (making him the Johnny Carson of his time). WSB's signal carried into 38 states, Canada and Cuba. His wide spread popularity inspired Atlanta furniture dealer, Polk Brockman, to persuade OKeh records president Ralph Peer to bring his recording equipment to Atlanta to record Fiddlin' John.
So it came to be that on June 14, 1923, Peer brought his recording equipment to a vacant building on Nassau Street in Atlanta and John cut two sides, "Little Old Log Cabin" and "The Old Hen Cackled and the Rooster's going to Crow." Making it the first country music recording and arguably the beginning of the country music industry. Peer deemed the cuts to be "pluperful awful" but agreed to press five hundred on a blank label for Brockman's personal use. At the next Fiddler's convention, Fiddlin' John hawked them from the stage and Brockman promptly sold every disc. Seeing that Americans disagreed with him, Peer immediately rushed into a major pressing on the OKeh label making it the first hit in the history country music. He invited Carson to New York to record twelve more sides. Carson remarking on his newfound success said; "I'll have to quit making moonshine and start making records."
I would like to sidetrack for a moment here and say a few words about music man Ralph Peer. Growing up with the record industry, 35-year-old Kansas City native Peer, Pioneered the new technique of on-location recording. This is the technique; He would simple roll into a Southern town and contact the local Victor dealers, music storeowners, and radio station operators to locate local talent. Then he would record them on the spot for $50 a selection plus royalties of about 2 1/2 cents per side. Now if you are a fan of the Andy Griffith Show, like me, you will remember when the National Records man came rolling into town. To stay with the Andy Griffith Show a little longer. Remember those crazy songs the Darling clan played, like; "Tear up your old clothes for rags" or "Slimy River Bottom" and you can't forget "Keep your money in your shoe and it won't get wet." Not that one Paw, it makes me cry! Fiddlin' John had some just as wild, like; "It's A Shame to Whip Your Wife On Sunday", "Who Bit The Wart Off Grandma's Nose", "Whatcha Gonna Do When Your Licker Gives Out?" "Ain't No Bugs On Me", and my favorite "You Can't Get Milk From A Cow Named Ben." Back to Fiddlin' John, he hit the road and toured as a member of The Virginia Reelers. Later his daughter, Rosa Lee, toured with him. Over time a comedy routine emerged out of the banter between Carson and Moonshine Kate (Rosa Lee's stage name) in which he was the "moonshine reprobate and she was the sassy, snuff-dipping mountain gal" who usually ended up out-wisecracking her father. Sort of a hillbilly Sonny & Cher. They traveled as far as Mexico and Canada in their Model T Ford. Fiddlin' John Carson and his daughter,"Moonshine Kate", were the first stars, despite this fact little of the fame and none of the fortunes produced in the country music industry were ever theirs.
Music legend Charlie Daniel took his inspiration for his hit; "Devil Went Down To Georgia" from Poet Stephen Vincent Benet 1920's poem: The Mountain Whippoorwill (Or, How Hill-Billy Jim Won the Great Fiddlers' Prize). It Described the Atlanta Fiddlers' Convention, the year young Lowe Stokes defeated Fiddlin' John Carson for the Fiddling Championship. In Carson's own youth, he beat Tenn. Gov. Bob Taylor in a contest. Carson, in a sense, plays both parts in this tale. He also sawed his on version.
But his star faded and by the '40s he was working as lift operator in Atlanta, where he died Dec. 11,1949.

Man Sued for Stopping at Stop Sign

From 2002 - 67 year old Arthur Thompson is being sued by 32 year old Lynn Manaouski for stopping at a 4-way stop sign. In her statement she described how she came up to the intersection leading into her downtown condo, and rear ended the driver in front of her due to his 'complete and full stop'. She continues to say that of the almost 2 years of living in that particular condominium complex, she had not once been behind someone who had made a full stop at the stop sign, and that his inability to be 'consistent with typical driving patterns' caused the accident. As a result, she is convinced that Mr. Thompson is directly responsible for the accident and should be held accountable for all incurred costs of repair to both vehicles. When reminded that it is the law to make a complete stop at a stop sign, her abrupt response was "I am quite capable of deciding when it is a good or bad time to stop my vehicle."

Three Kings

There's an old joke that goes; What's the difference between a Northern tale and a Southern tale? A Northern tale begins "Once upon a time..." and a Southern tale begins "Y'all ain't gonna believe this..." Well Bubba, I'm here to tell you, Y'all ain't gonna believe this! This has got to be one of the most bizarre incidents to take place in state politics anywhere, bizarre but true! The time, November 1947 and Eugene "the wild man of sugar creek" Talmadge had been elected governor of Georgia for the fourth time (1932, 1934, 1940, and 1946). Defeating political foe and current Governor Ellis Arnall, who defeated Talmadge in 1942 due to a scandal involving the University of Georgia. But "Ole' Gene" dies of cirrhosis of the liver on 21 December 1946, before he had been inaugurated governor. The controversy that followed quickly evolved into a constitutional crisis.
Knowing Talmadge was not well going into the November general election, some of the Talmadge cronies undertook a write-in campaign for Gene's son, Herman. The reason for the write-in campaign was due to a provision, which stated that the Georgia General Assembly would elect a governor from the next two candidates, if the winner of the general election died before taking office. Since Republicans were non-existent in 1940's Georgia, the Talmadge camp reasoned that the younger Talmadge would become governor should daddy Gene die.
Before 1945, this would have been constitutional, since Georgia had no lt. governor before this time. But OOPS, The 1945 Georgia Constitution created the office of lt. governor to succeed governors should they die while in office, making their ploy moot. In 1946, M.E. Thompson, a Talmdage foe, was elected Georgia's first lt. governor. Simultaneously, the out going governor, Ellis Arnall, who was also a Talmdage foe refused to leave the office of governor until the Georgia Supreme Court heard the case and make its decision concerning this crisis. Talmdage, Thompson and Arnall would face off in January 1947 when the General Assembly convened.
The General Assembly, which was overwhelmingly in support of the Talmadge forces, moved to disregard the new Constitution, and the lawmakers decided that. Thompson was not the governor since neither Thompson nor Talmadge had been sworn in when "Ole' Gene" met his maker. In an attempt to thwart the Talmadge forces, the Thompson camp began serving drinks laced with knockout drops to pro-Talmadge legislators. After the unconscious legislators were revived, the General Assembly moved to choose the next governor from the next two candidates receiving votes. Now another problem arose for the Talmadge camp, young Herman had placed third among write-in votes. The Talmadge forces in the General Assembly quickly pressed for an adjournment to regroup. The day was saved when a set of ballots from Talmadge's home county of Telfair was "conveniently discovered" and had gone "uncounted" when the election took place in November 1946. The ballots were rushed to Atlanta to be counted. When the Telfair ballots arrived, the write-in ballots placed Herman Talmadge into the top two of candidates receiving votes behind his late father. It was later discovered that all of the Telfair ballots were written in the same handwriting and all voters had also cast their ballots in alphabetical order, and some of the voters resided in local Telfair County cemeteries.
In anticipation of possible bloodshed, the major radio networks sent their war correspondents to cover this riveting story in Atlanta. There was a real concern about the possibility of violence. The National Guard, which had recently returned from World War II, supported the Talmadge camp and The State Guard, formed to be the National Guard's temporary replacement, supported Arnall. There was a fear that these two armies might start fighting with each other over this issue. Luckily, no violence erupted during the crisis.
The younger Talmadge was then sworn in at 2 A.M. on 15 January 1947 as governor of Georgia. However, the outgoing governor, Ellis Arnall refused to relinquish the office of governor, stating that Herman Talmadge was a "pretender" to the governorship. Talmadge left the governor's office and told the adjutant general, Marvin Griffin, to see to it that Ellis Arnall got back safely to his home in Newnan, about 40 miles south of Atlanta. Griffin was then instructed to change the locks on the doors of the governor's office. Talmadge's orders were followed, and he took control of the governor's office later that morning.
Arnall returned to the Capitol late on the morning of 15 January to the governor's office. When he tried to go into the governor's office, he was told that he could wait to see Governor Talmadge just like any other citizen. Angered at the turn of events, Arnall took control of the information booth at the front door of the Capitol building. From here, Arnall would continue to claim that he was still governor. When a pro-Talmadge legislator dropped a firecracker into the information booth, Arnall then moved to his nearby law office, although rumors circulated that Arnall had commandeered the men's restroom as his office. Arnall would continue his claim to be governor for 3 more days until he "resigned" the office in favor of M.E. Thompson.
Upon the "resignation" of Arnall, Lt. Governor Thompson then claimed to be the acting governor. Some of the other state department heads began to choose sides between Talmadge and Thompson. The attorney general refused to bond Talmadge's choice for state revenue commissioner, and the state treasurer refused to honor any spending requests from Talmadge. Not knowing which man was the legitimate governor, the secretary of state even began sitting on and sleeping with the state seal which was needed by the governor to make certain documents legal. On 21 January, Talmadge proposed that he and Thompson resign, and re-run the election and allow voters to decide among the two. Thompson quickly said "no way", but did file a motion before the Georgia Supreme Court.
This event had a rather anticlimactic ending. In March 1947, the Georgia Supreme Court overturned two lower court rulings and decided that M.E. Thompson was the Acting Governor. The Court ruled that the General Assembly should have declared Eugene Talmadge the governor-elect although he had been dead for three weeks by the time the legislature met. At that point, M.E. Thompson should have been sworn in as Acting Governor because the declared governor-elect was dead. The Court did rule that a special election be held in 1948 to decided the remainder of the term ending in 1950. To the surprise of some, Talmadge abided by the Court ruling and gave up the governorship to Thompson. However, Talmadge would have the last laugh. In 1948, Talmadge decisively defeated Thompson in the special election. Think it was on the strength of those alphabetized dead voters? Something to think about.

A Titanic Story

It was a Thursday when Titanic survivor and Atlanta native May Furelle arrived in Atlanta to tell her story. It had only been two weeks since the harrowing ordeal that took the life of her husband, noted Sci-Fi novelist Jacques Fuelle. Here is the account of that faithful night in her own words.

We had been in Europe for several weeks while Jacques wrote a number of magazine articles. The night before we sailed, friends gathered in London to celebrate Jacques 's birthday. The party didn't end until 3:00 in the morning and so we never went to bed, just packed and headed for Southampton. You know thinking back, if Jacques had got drunk that night, we might not have sailed, and he might be alive today. But he never did drink much. We boarded the Titanic and were shone to our stateroom on C deck, 123 I believe. I expressed my concerns to Jacques, about sailing on the maiden voyage. He replied "It would never be safer, I trust the company and officers of this boat." The idea of criminal carelessness in the matter of the lifeboats never entered our heads. How could they take such a chance? Also, I heard they were trying to break the speed record on the crossing. That unforgettable night started off exquisitely, with dinner in a most luxurious dining saloon. There was an orchestra playing and the tables were crowded with wealthy men in formal wear and gorgeous, bejeweled women wearing expensive Parisian gowns. After some dancing and late night conversation with friends, we retired to our stateroom and were preparing for bed when we felt "a slight concussion" a shock wave that traveled the length of the ship. When I asked Jacques what had happened, he replied: "Oh, I guess it's nothing. We have simply bumped into a baby iceberg. If that's what it is, it won't bother the Titanic any more than if it had struck a match." Despite Jacques's reassurances, I became alarmed and insisted that he investigate whether anything serious had happened. We crossed the hall to our friends; the Harris and I stayed with Mrs. Harris, as the men went up on deck to see what was the matter. They were back in just a few minutes and soon after an officer came by to tell us to dress warmly and to put on a life belt. Other than that, no alarm was given. In a moment we understood that the situation was desperate, that the compartments had refused to hold back the rush of the water. As we made our way to the boat deck, I had a chilling encountered a group of men with "smoke-blackened faces" standing silently in a group staring at me. They said nothing but their eyes seemed to say, 'at least you have a chance, we have none. An officer stopped us on A deck, just below the boat deck, to wait our turn to get off. Some boats had already pushed off, it was later rumored that Bruce Ismay (president of the ship line), along with Lord Duff Gordon, hired some stokers to man a lifeboat and get them safely away. A woman passenger later said, "As Ismay climbed into the boat, an officer cursed at him to get out are be shot, Ismay replied, “shoot I have only one time to die." When the time came for launching the lifeboats there was little order or discipline. The crew and officers did their best, but it was poor. The boats were sent out without being full; the crews were not selected; many of the stewards and cooks slipped in against orders. I reached the boat deck, I saw Colonel (John Jacob) Astor helping his wife into lifeboat #4 and stepping back as it launched, also on that boat were Mrs. Wilder, Mrs. Thayer, Mrs. Ryerson, her daughters and son and others whom I knew. I threw my arms around Jacques, kissed him and told him that I would not leave him. But Jacques persuaded me to enter the lifeboat and then left. As the boat was about to be lowed, I decided I couldn't leave my beloved husband, so I leaped out and went below deck to find him. I found him and we hugged and kissed for what would be the last time. He took me back to the lifeboats and again directed me to get into one of the boats, reminding me of the children. He assured me, that when the ship sank he would survive by clinging to one of the lifeboats until he was picked up. As he pushed me toward a lifeboat and I began to hesitate, he shouted: "For God's sake, go! It's your last chance, go!"Then an officer forced me into the lifeboat, and at that moment I gave up hope that he could be saved." Lifeboat No. 16, in which I escaped, was, like many of the ship's boats, only half-filled with four women from first class and eight from second class, only twelve women, while there were eighteen men and seventeen of the crew.None of them were oarsman or sailors; they were stewards and cooks. The last I saw of my husband, he was standing beside Colonel Astor, Mr. Harris and Mr. Hoyt. He had a cigarette in his mouth. As I watched him, he lit a match and held it in his cupped hands before his face. By its light I could see his eyes roam anxiously over the water. Then he dropped his head toward his hands and lit his cigarette.... I know those hands never trembled. Eighteen boats in all were launched, as I watched the last one being lowered, the crew ran away leaving in it suspended in air. Someone took hold and lowered it down, I believe it was our men, for a few minutes later Mr. Hoyt leaped into the water and was found almost frozen after eight minutes. The boats stood away from the Titanic as it sunk low in the water, only looming up as a dark mass before us. The lights shining through the port holes. Suddenly it lifted on end and plunged down, the light going out as if someone had turned a switch, then two explosions and it was over. As we rowed to get away from the suction, I became conscious of a moan over the sea. It was not a scream of pain, only a moan that swept out from where the ship had gone down. It lasted but a few minutes, but it seemed like hours. Then there was silence; it’s at this time I started observing everything closely, because I thought myself dead. We had no water, only a small amount of bread, no compass or charts to steer with. We were told that a wireless had been sent, but it was not known if it had been received. So none of us were expecting to live, when the Carpathia pick us up at about 6:30. Being rescued from the jaws of death, by the Carpathia, meant a realization of my grief, of the scope of the tragedy, which had taken place. Then on deck of the Carpathia seeing women reuniting with their husbands made me realize it all the more.
Later in 1912, May Furelle had Jacques' last work, "My Lady's Garter", published. She inscribed in the book, "To the heroes of the Titanic, I dedicate this my husband's book."
She later returned to the home Jacques had built for her in Scituate, Massachusetts were she died at the age of 91.