Titanic Historical Society 50th Anniversary: Day 4

Today was awesome!  This trip has been the best $300 I've spent in my life.  This afternoon, there was a coach tour of Pigeon Forge scheduled for the group but my Mother and I decided to take advantage of the free admission as attendees of the THS convention and go to the Titanic Pigeon Forge exhibit again.  I can never get over all those artifacts and actually walking up the Grand Staircase.  The people there are so friendly and nice as well.  We returned to the hotel for a little break before getting into our 1st class attire and going back to the museum where we would have the special privilege of having our dinner on the 3rd floor of the museum.  When we got there, we were given our cards we were assigned a table.  Each table was named after a survivor.  As we were waiting for them to take us up, Ken Marschall in the flesh came up with his partner.  We rode the elevator together and we had a brief conversation about the elevators.  Then we came up to the third level where it was held in a very large and beautiful room with well done murals.  We found our seat at the Washington Dodge Jr. table where we had the great privilege of sitting with Bill Wormstedt and his wife, George Behe, Phil Gowan, Mike Herbold, and there was an empty seat which was supposed to belong to Douglas Willingham.  The table next to us had Ken Marschall, Don Lynch, Darrell Rooney, and several others.  When the event began, Mrs. Joselyn got up and spoke eloquently about the museum and their exhibits.  Then we had a delicious meal.  We started out with at tartlet trio with flavors of spinach, brie and raspberry, and goat cheese and stuffed mushrooms filled with Italian sausage and Parmesan cheese.  The next course was a delicious salad.  Then they served a very good plate of Grilled Alaskan Salmon with Mustard Dill on top, filet minion, baby carrots, and white cheddar mashed potatoes.  Between this course and the next, Ken Marschall was introduced.  He gave a wonderful speech about the making of the movie and showed us pictures that hadn't been published before of the making of the film.  It was so fascinating, looking at the making of the movie and how they did certain shots.  During his speech, they served cake, ice cream, and coffee.  Afterwards, they were so kind and gracious to us.  I say that because I brought a lithograph and 5 books for him to sign.  When most of the people at left, we began talking to Ken's partner, Verne.  We laughed at his jokes and he is a very nice man.  Eventually, it was just me, my Mother, Ken Marschall, and Verne.  We had a wonderful time talking with them about the Titanic for almost half an hour.  We left trying to take in everything that had happened and it will probably take a few days to process and file away all the information I've heard.  Tomorrow is the last day and while it will be good to get back home, I have loved this trip so much and I will never forget it.