Karen Marie Abelseth

Born in the Norwegian fjords

She was born Karn Marie Kristiansdatter Abelseth on September 14th in Ørskog, Søndmøre, Norway — the fourth of nine children born to Iver Kristian and Nikoline Petrine (Tosse) Abelseth. The family home sat in the village of Sjøholt, nestled among the fjords and mountains of western Norway. Her mother passed away when Karen was twelve years old.

A note on Norwegian naming. In Norway at this time, children did not inherit a family surname as Americans do today. Daughters took their father's first name with "datter" added — making her Kristiansdatter, meaning "daughter of Kristian." Abelseth was not a family surname but a farm name, referring to the farm where the family lived. When she emigrated to America she became Karen Marie Abelseth — simpler, more American, but carrying a little less of Norway in the translation. Karn was the name her father called her. In America she was also known as Katie, her husband Harry called her Kalla, and her grandchildren called her Nama.

Sjøholt, Norway — the fjord village Karen left behind at sixteen

Final school year

Karen attended Søndmøre Amtsskole for her final year of schooling. The school allowed her to take her final examinations early so that she could emigrate to America — she finished her education properly before she left, doing things the right way before embarking on her great adventure. The class photograph was taken during 1911–1912 — just months before she would board the Titanic. When a trusted family friend, Olaus Abelseth, arranged to return to America in the spring of 1912, her father seized the opportunity to send her safely in his company.

Karen's calling card portrait — her own signature below

Søndmøre Amtsskole, 1911–1912 — Karen is second from right, bottom row

Karen with friends in Norway, before her departure for America

The Titanic

The journey to the Titanic began in Ålesund, Norway. On April 5, 1912, all six — Karen, Olaus, Sigurd Hansen Moen, Peter Søholt, Anna Salkjelsvik, and Adolf Humblen — departed together aboard the Erling Jarl, sailing from Ålesund to Bergen, then on to Newcastle. Adolf Humblen was the brother of their schoolteacher back home, so Karen knew who he was. Anna Salkjelsvik was the only one Karen had not previously known — she joined them at Ålesund, traveling with Adolf as her companion. The six boarded the RMS Titanic together at Southampton on April 10, 1912 as third class passengers. Karen was sixteen years old. Her ticket number was 348125, which cost £7 13s. Her destination was 848 East Adams Street, Los Angeles, California, where her sister Anna was waiting for her. The group shared close connections — Sigurd Moen was married to Olaus's sister Inge, Peter Søholt was Olaus's cousin, and Olaus had been entrusted by Karen's father to see her safely to America. The women — Karen and Anna — shared a cabin together in the stern of the ship, as was the arrangement for single women in third class. The men were berthed separately at the bow — the opposite end of the Titanic entirely. On the night of the sinking, when the men realized something was wrong, they traveled the full length of the ship through Scotland Road on E Deck in the dark to reach the women's cabins at the stern. That journey — the length of the Titanic — is what brought Adolf Humblen to Karen's bedside in time to wake her up.

On the night of April 14th, Karen was asleep when the ship struck the iceberg. She was woken by a traveling companion. The Norwegian men escorted her to the lifeboats. She was placed in Lifeboat 16 — one of the last boats lowered from the port side of the ship. As she recalled to her family, she believed she was in the last lifeboat.

A 1916 Goldfield, Nevada newspaper account of her marriage described a dramatic scene at the lifeboat — with a ship's officer intervening to protect her place. As was common in small-town reporting of the era, the account was sensationalized, but it reflects the story Karen herself was telling just four years after the sinking.

Karen was rescued by the RMS Carpathia and arrived in New York on April 18th. During the sinking, Karen and Anna had been separated — Karen was placed in Lifeboat 16 on the port side, while Anna escaped in Collapsible C on the starboard side — the last lifeboat to successfully lower from the ship, with Anna among its passengers. Both women had cut it to the very last possible moment, on opposite sides of a sinking ship, and neither knew if the other had survived. It was only aboard the Carpathia, going through a corridor, that Karen found Olaus alive — and was reunited with Anna. The two women who had shared a cabin on the Titanic — strangers when they boarded, bound together by that night — who had faced that night together and been torn apart by it, found each other again on the rescue ship. As Karen wrote to her father: she didn't see any of her company except Anna — and then there was Olaus. She spent time recovering at St. Vincent's Hospital in New York before continuing her journey.

Karen never spoke of the Titanic to her children or grandchildren. As children, they were instructed never to ask — it was too distressing to her.

The men who saved her life

Karen did not reach that lifeboat alone. Three men made it possible — and without them, she would not have survived, and many of us would never have taken our first breaths.

Sigurd Moen was married to Olaus Abelseth's sister Inge. He was 25 years old when he died. Karen's letter to her father — written just six weeks after the sinking — is in part a tribute to Sigurd, and to the kindness he showed a frightened sixteen-year-old girl in the worst night of both their lives.

First days in America

The earliest photograph we have of Karen in America shows her visiting her Aunt Lovise in Oregon — sitting by the fireplace in a warm, well-furnished home. Three years after surviving the Titanic, she is settled and calm. She has built a life.

Karen (left) visiting Aunt Lovise in Oregon, 1915 — her first documented moment in America

Life in the gold rush boomtown

Karen settled in Goldfield, Nevada — at its peak the largest and most vibrant city in the state, a gold rush boomtown with 49 saloons, 22 hotels, and characters like Wyatt and Virgil Earp walking its streets. She married Harry Sylvester Little here in 1916. Their first child, Phyllis, was born in Goldfield. Their closest friends in Goldfield were Roy and Jo, who served as witnesses at their wedding and remained dear friends for the rest of their lives — still together with Harry and Karen at their 50th wedding anniversary.

Harry worked at the mining company store, and Karen found work at a local laundry — ironing and folding shirts. Decades later, long after Goldfield was behind them, Harry's shirts were still the neatest and most crisply pressed you'd ever see. Beyond work, Harry was a talented drummer who played in the band at the community dances, and like many Goldfield men, took part in the town's baseball league. He was also said to have played in the celebration band when Arizona achieved statehood on February 14, 1912 — just two months before Karen boarded the Titanic. Small town life in a big Nevada sky.

The Wedding Announcement. Four days after the wedding, the Goldfield News and Weekly Tribune of April 8, 1916 ran the following notice — confirming Roy and Jo as the witnesses, and offering a glimpse of the story Karen was telling about that night on the Titanic:

"Katie Marie Abelseth and Harry S. Little took out a license yesterday afternoon at the office of County Clerk Roberson and were married at the Methodist parsonage last evening by the Rev. J. L. Collins. The ceremony was witnessed by Miss Josephine Hughes and Ray A. Via, friends of the contracting parties. Rumors of the approaching matrimonial plunge of the groom have been about town for some time and the marriage did not come as a surprise to the friends of the young couple. The groom is a clerk in a local shoe establishment and the bride claims the distinction of being the last person in the last seat in the last boat to leave the ill-fated Titanic when it was standing on its nose with propellers high in air. One of several men who jumped for the seat was shot by the purser of the liner and Miss Abelseth gained it and was taken on board one of the ships which later arrived on the scene of the disaster."

— Goldfield News and Weekly Tribune, April 8, 1916. Via Encyclopedia Titanica.

Roy A. Via and Josephine Hughes. Among everything that Goldfield gave Karen and Harry — a marriage, a first child, a new life in the American West — perhaps its most enduring gift was two friends. Roy and Jo stood as witnesses at their wedding in 1916, and fifty years later they were still there, together with Harry and Karen at their golden anniversary. They never had children, and history has little else to record about them. But they were important — the kind of friends who show up at the beginning and are still standing beside you at the end. This page exists in part so that Roy and Jo are not entirely lost to time.

On July 4th, 1916 — likely her first Fourth of July as a married woman — Karen marched in the Independence Day parade down Goldfield's main street in her white dress and wide-brimmed hat, blowing a party horn and carrying flowers. She bumped into something that day and chipped her tooth on the horn. A Norwegian girl who survived the Titanic, celebrating America in a Wild West gold rush town.

Karen (right) and Jo (middle) in the July 4th parade, Goldfield, 1916 — the day she chipped her tooth on that horn

Karen (left) and Jo (right) on the Independence Day float, Goldfield, 1916

Harry, Karen, Roy, and Jo, Goldfield, 1916 — witnesses at their wedding and lifelong friends

Harry with an unknown woman (left) and Jo (right), Goldfield, 1916

Karen in the Nevada desert, at home in the American West

Karen and Harry — a playful moment in Goldfield

Karen bathing baby Phyllis outdoors in Goldfield — their first child, born here

The Littles of Goldfield

Karen (left), Harry (center), and Jo (right), Goldfield

Karen, Harry, and Jo — the Nevada desert behind them

The family settles in California

After time in Yerington, Nevada, the Little family made their final home in Inglewood, California. They built a beautiful Spanish Colonial house on a quiet street. Karen raised five children here: Phyllis, Norman, Francis, Wanda, and Iris.

This family photograph was taken looking east from the Inglewood house, circa 1923 — we know this because baby Wanda, born in 1922, is visible in the stroller. Albert Clarence Little (Harry's father, far left) passed away in 1927, confirming how early this photograph is.

The Little family, Inglewood, circa 1923. Back row: Albert Clarence Little, Karen, Harry, unknown. Front row: Wanda (stroller), Norman, Phyllis, Francis. Behind them — the future site of SoFi Stadium.

The Little family home, Inglewood, California

Young Wanda Little on the front steps — the girl who would one day share her mother's story with the world

Reunited with her sisters

Karen had been traveling to join her sister Anna in Los Angeles when she boarded the Titanic. She made it — and in California, the Abelseth sisters were finally together. Anna, Karen, and Lisa photographed side by side, in the sunshine that Karen had crossed the world to reach. The youngest sister, Bertha, came later — and all four sisters eventually made their home in Southern California, all of them laid to rest at Inglewood Park Cemetery.

Anna, Karen, and Lisa Abelseth — the sisters reunited in California

Lisa and Karen at a celebration in Inglewood

The Little family portrait

Karen and Harry, surrounded by the five children they raised together. This is what she built — from a Norwegian fjord to the Titanic to a gold rush town to this: a family, a home, a California life.

The Little family. Back row: Wanda, Norman, Francis, Phyllis. Front row: Harry, Karen, Iris.

A Night to Remember — 1958

Forty-six years after the sinking, Karen attended a screening of the 1958 film A Night to Remember with her daughter Wanda. She shook like a leaf throughout. She said nothing — until the moment in the film when the Titanic's lights went out. At that exact moment, she said four words:

"There go the lights."

She had seen those lights go out once before — from a lifeboat in the North Atlantic, on the night of April 14th, 1912. It was the only time Karen ever said anything about that night.

Karn — Karen — Katie — Kalla — Nama

Karen Marie Abelseth Little passed away on July 27, 1969, in Inglewood, California, from the effects of Parkinson's disease. She was 73 years old. She is buried at Inglewood Park Cemetery. Her grandchildren called her Nama. Her husband Harry called her Kalla. Her father had called her Karn. She was sixteen when she survived the Titanic, and she never spoke of it again.