The 10 notable last survivors of historic moments act as living time capsules, preserving memories, experiences, and first‑hand accounts that would otherwise slip into pure history. When they eventually pass on, the events they witnessed shift from living memory to recorded fact, leaving us with only books, photographs, and second‑hand stories. Imagine looking back over six, seven, or even eight decades and hearing, “I was there, I saw it, I survived.” These ten remarkable individuals have done exactly that.
What Makes These 10 Notable Last Survivors Unique?
10 Mae Keene The Last Living Radium Girl
In the roaring twenties, a wave of progress lifted women into the workforce in unprecedented numbers. The newly won right to vote was just the beginning; companies were eager to hire young women for jobs that demanded meticulous, repetitive tasks. One such niche was hand‑painting radium‑laced paint onto clock faces, a trade that made timepieces glow eerily in the dark. Radium, first uncovered in 1898 by Marie Curie, was mixed with zinc sulfide in 1902 by William Hammer to create radioluminescent paint, and soon every bedside clock and wristwatch sported that ghostly glow.
In 1924, an 18‑year‑old Mae Keene stepped into the Waterbury Clock Company in Vermont, joining a cadre of women who learned to moisten their brush tips with their own lips to achieve a fine point. That seemingly innocuous habit meant they were licking radium‑contaminated paint into their mouths each time they touched the brush, ingesting radioactive particles. The companies assured the workers the paint was harmless, a claim that wouldn’t be debunked until the late 1920s. Some of the women even smuggled the luminous paint home to paint their fingernails, turning a deadly hazard into a fashionable trend.
Mae hung up her brush after only a few months—a decision that likely saved her life. While many of her colleagues later suffered from “radium jaw,” a painful, often fatal disease where radium erodes bone and rots the jaw, Mae escaped those grim consequences. She lived to a ripe old age, and at 108 she may well be the very last living radium girl, a living reminder of a luminous but hazardous chapter in industrial history.
9 Werner Franz The Last Living Crew Member Of The Hindenburg
The Hindenburg’s catastrophic crash at Lakehurst, New Jersey on May 6, 1937, is etched into the public consciousness, but few remember that 62 of the 97 people on board survived that fiery inferno. Among those survivors, only one remains today: Werner Franz, who was a 14‑year‑old cabin boy at the time. His daily routine ran from early morning until late evening, preparing the messroom, serving coffee, and handling the logistical details that kept the massive airship humming.
By the time he boarded his first transatlantic voyage, Franz had already logged trips to South America aboard the Hindenburg. He had fallen into a rhythm of washing dishes, setting tables, and ferrying coffee to the crew’s night watches. On that fateful evening, as the airship approached the Lakehurst tower, Franz was still tidying up the messroom, oblivious to the looming disaster.
Just as he placed a coffee cup away, a sudden shudder rippled through the ship, and the stern dipped while the bow lifted. He sprinted toward the gangway, only to be confronted by a massive ball of flame surging toward him as the hydrogen cells ignited. A sudden rush of water from a shifting ballast tank doused him, buying precious seconds before the fire could engulf him entirely.
The water shield saved him from severe burns, but he still faced the daunting task of escaping a burning leviathan. Remembering a provision hatch used for loading supplies, Franz bolted to it, perched on a beam with the inferno roaring around him, and kicked the hatch open. He peered down, saw the ground rushing up, and waited until the Hindenburg was almost upon the earth before leaping. As he hit the ground, the ship lurched back into the air, granting him a narrow window to scramble clear of the collapsing wreckage.
Emerging wet but unharmed, Franz later returned to the twisted hull of the Hindenburg to retrieve a watch his grandfather had given him. Against all odds, he found the cherished timepiece amid the charred debris, a testament to his uncanny luck and tenacity.
8 John Cruickshank Last Living Victoria Cross Winner For Action During World War II
The Victoria Cross stands as the highest accolade for gallantry in the face of the enemy within the British and Commonwealth armed forces. Today, John Cruickshank is the sole surviving World War II combatant to have earned this distinguished award, and his tale reads like a daring aerial thriller.
Cruickshank piloted a PBY Catalina flying boat tasked with hunting German U‑boats across the frigid Arctic Ocean. The aircraft was armed with six 250‑pound depth charges, ready to strike lurking submarines. On his 48th sortie, cruising at roughly 2,000 feet, he and his crew spotted U‑347 on the surface and swooped in for an attack. Their first low‑level pass failed to release the depth charges, prompting a second approach.
During the second run, the U‑boat’s crew unleashed a barrage of deck‑gun fire. The Catalina was shredded by bullets and shells, killing one crew member and wounding several others. Cruickshank himself took the brunt of the assault, sustaining an astonishing 72 separate projectile wounds to his limbs and lungs. Yet, despite the grievous injuries, he kept the plane steady and finally released all six depth charges, sinking the submarine.
The battered Catalina, barely holding together, had to be flown back to Scotland. Bleeding and drifting between consciousness and oblivion, Cruickshank refused morphine to remain capable of piloting if needed. Upon arrival, the copilot was unable to land the crippled aircraft, so Cruickshank took the controls, gently alighting the flying boat on water and keeping its nose above the surface long enough to reach shallow water and bring the mission to a safe conclusion.
7 Reinhard Hardegen The Last Living German U‑Boat Captain
Reinhard Hardegen escaped the fate of many of his fellow submariners simply because he was not aboard U‑347 when John Cruickshank’s Catalina sank it. Hardegen, a decorated German officer and recipient of the coveted Knight’s Cross, commanded the infamous U‑123, making him one of the most lethal U‑boat captains of the war.
Hardegen’s U‑123 proved a nightmare for Allied shipping, especially during Operation Drumbeat in early 1942, a period the Germans dubbed the “Happy Time.” During those months, German submarines prowled the North Atlantic and the Eastern Seaboard, sinking Allied vessels with almost impunity. Hardegen’s aggressive tactics contributed to the loss of roughly 500 Allied ships and the deaths of about 5,000 merchant mariners, earning him a reputation as a fearsome adversary.
However, the tide turned in 1943 when Allied anti‑submarine technology improved dramatically. The Germans grimly labeled this later period the “Sour Pickle Time,” as U‑boat missions became increasingly perilous. Hardegen survived the intensified Allied counter‑measures, the war’s end, and lived to the age of 101, making him the last surviving World War II German U‑boat commander and one of the final living German submariners.
6 David Stolier The Last Living Survivor Of The Struma Disaster
In 1936, as anti‑Jewish sentiment intensified in Romania, David Stolier’s father secured passage for his son on the Struma, an aging cattle boat that was barely seaworthy. The vessel, overcrowded with nearly 800 passengers and crew, set sail for the supposed safety of British‑mandated Palestine. After a grueling journey, the Struma limped into Istanbul, where the Turkish authorities barred disembarkation and the British denied visas, leaving the passengers stranded for two agonizing months.
Stolier later recalled the horrendous conditions aboard the Struma: passengers sweltered under the Mediterranean sun, cramped into tiny spaces with scant water and food. When the Turkish officials finally forced the ship back into the Black Sea in February 1942, a Soviet submarine—mistaking the Struma for an Axis vessel—torpedoed it just a mile off the coast.
The torpedo blast sent the overloaded boat to the bottom, claiming 769 lives, including 75 children. Miraculously, David emerged as the sole survivor of the tragedy. Seventy‑two years later, he remains the last living witness to that harrowing episode, a living testament to both human endurance and the catastrophic consequences of wartime politics.
5 Harry Ettlinger The Last Monuments Man
Not every senior citizen gets the chance to rub shoulders with George Clooney, let alone watch his World War II story unfold on the silver screen. Yet 88‑year‑old Harry Ettlinger has done exactly that, and his résumé includes a truly unique claim to fame: he is the last surviving member of the Allied unit dispatched to Germany to recover the priceless artworks the Nazis had hidden away in caves, salt mines, and other secret locations.
As the war drew to a close, Allied commanders feared that the Nazis would destroy the cultural treasures they had looted from occupied Europe. To prevent this, they formed the Monuments, Fine Arts, and Archives (MFAA) corps—a small but elite team of art historians, professors, and other cultural custodians. Their mission was to locate, secure, and return the stolen masterpieces to their rightful owners. Nearly 70 years later, Harry Ettlinger is the only living member of that historic squad, and he even attended the Hollywood premiere of “The Monuments Men,” the film that dramatizes their daring exploits.
Ettlinger, a German‑born Jew who escaped the Third Reich in the 1930s, returned to Europe at the war’s end to help recover artworks—many of which had been stolen from Jewish families. Together with his comrades, he helped rescue over 900 pieces, ranging from Renaissance paintings to medieval sculptures. After the war, he settled in Newark, New Jersey, and contributed to the Cold War effort by working for a company that designed nuclear weapons.
4 Sarah Collins Rudolph The Last Living 16th Street Baptist Church Bombing Survivor
On September 15, 1963, at precisely 10:22 a.m., a bomb detonated inside the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama. Four Klansmen had tunneled beneath the church’s front steps and planted a case of dynamite, aiming to crush the Civil Rights movement by targeting its African‑American congregation. The explosion claimed the lives of four young girls—Addie Mae Collins, Carole Robertson, Cynthia Wesley (all 14), and 11‑year‑old Denise McNair—who were attending a Sunday service.
It took more than a decade for authorities to track down the perpetrators. The four girls were posthumously awarded the Congressional Gold Medal, but a fifth victim of that tragic day remained largely unrecognized: Sarah Collins Rudolph, Addie Mae’s younger sister. She survived the blast, losing an eye to flying glass and enduring months of hospitalization.
Even decades later, Sarah still bears the psychological scars of that morning, but she stands as the only surviving victim of the bombing, a living reminder of the violent backlash faced by the Civil Rights movement and the resilience of those who endured it.
3 Donald “Nick” Clifford The Last Living Sculptor Of Mount Rushmore
Carving colossal faces into a granite cliff is no ordinary day’s work, especially when the project is as iconic as the Mount Rushmore National Memorial. Remarkably, no worker lost his life during the three‑year construction, a fact that delights the last surviving artisan who helped shape the monument: Donald “Nick” Clifford.
Clifford’s tenacity began at age 15, when he relentlessly appealed to sculptor Gutzon Borglum for a job. His break came at 17, thanks to his baseball prowess. In 1938, Borglum’s son formed a workers’ baseball team, and Clifford’s pitching and infield skills earned him a spot on the Mount Rushmore Memorial Drillers. He kept pressing his coworkers until they finally secured him a position.
Initially, Clifford earned a modest $0.50 per hour cutting logs and operating winches to raise and lower cables. He soon earned a promotion to driller, with a $1‑per‑day raise, and spent three years chiseling the presidential visages into the mountain. Today, he signs autographs at the Mount Rushmore gift shop and fields questions about the monument’s creation, proudly holding the title of the last person who actually worked on the sculpture.
2 Alcides Ghiggia The Last Living Winner Of The 1950 World Cup
When it comes to South American football legends, most fans immediately think of Pelé. Yet another name—Alcides Ghiggia—holds a unique place in World Cup history as the sole surviving member of Uruguay’s 1950 squad, the team that pulled off one of the sport’s most staggering upsets.
The 1950 tournament unfolded in Brazil, where the home side expected an easy victory. The final match pitted Brazil against neighboring Uruguay before a crowd of 200,000 in the newly built Maracanã Stadium. Brazil needed only a draw to clinch the title, and the local newspapers had already printed headlines proclaiming their triumph. Uruguay’s coach, however, bought every copy from the hotel newsstand and, in a symbolic gesture, had his players use them as a toilet seat.
Brazil led 1‑0 for much of the game until Uruguay’s Juan Schiaffino equalized at 1‑1. With only minutes remaining, the match seemed destined for a Brazilian victory. Then, with 11 minutes left on the clock, Ghiggia surged forward and netted the decisive goal, sealing a 2‑1 win for Uruguay. The stunned Brazilian crowd fell silent, and the defeat earned the moniker “Maracanaco”—a national trauma that still echoes in Brazil’s collective memory.
Ghiggia’s enduring legacy continued decades later. In 2013, he was invited to the final selection process for the 2014 World Cup, which returned to Brazil. He planned to attend the ceremony, proudly supporting Uruguay, and would become one of only two individuals—alongside Uruguay’s president—permitted to touch the coveted trophy as it traveled through his homeland.
1 David Greenglass The Last Living Rosenberg Co‑Conspirator
On June 19, 1953, Julius Rosenberg and his wife Ethel were executed for espionage after being convicted of passing atomic secrets to the Soviet Union. Over six decades later, only one of their principal co‑conspirators remains alive: David Greenglass, Ethel’s brother.
The spy ring originated with Klaus Fuchs, a brilliant physicist who worked at the top‑secret Los Alamos laboratory, where the first atomic bombs were designed. After the Soviet Union detonated its own bomb in 1949—years ahead of schedule—Fuchs confessed to spying and implicated chemist Harry Gold. Gold, in turn, named David Greenglass, a U.S. Army serviceman stationed at Los Alamos, as a participant in the espionage network.
David was recruited by Julius Rosenberg through his wife, Ruth Greenglass. He passed classified information to the Soviets via Gold and Julius. During the Rosenbergs’ trial, Greenglass testified that Ethel had typed some of the secret documents, a claim that helped seal her fate. He later recanted, insisting that his sister‑in‑law had not been involved, but by then the wheels of justice had already turned.
In exchange for his testimony, Greenglass received a 15‑year prison sentence rather than the death penalty. He later recanted his statements, but the damage was done: Ethel and Julius were executed at Sing Sing. In 2006, a federal judge ordered that Greenglass’s secret grand‑jury testimony remain sealed until after his death, cementing his place as the last living link to that chilling chapter of Cold War history.
Patrick Weidinger used a computer to research and type this list, but he is one of the last living survivors of an ancient time when research was conducted with printed materials and oral histories and typing meant using a typewriter.