Lillian Geffert, nee Merz or Lamprecht. She was born 16 April 1901 in Germany. Her mother was a Mary Lamprecht, born ca. 1872 in Germany. She also had a brother, Carl A. (b. 11 March 1906) and a sister, Anna Lamprecht, born around 1910. She was listed as Lydia Merz and she was an operator at a glass factory in 1930, living with her family in Jersey City. She had married Philip Geffert 1 September 1934 at Saint Paul of the Cross Roman Catholic Church in Jersey City, New Jersey and they were on the Morro Castle on their honeymoon. On the Morro Castle, she had been staying in cabin 207 with her husband Philip. They knew the Gilligan sisters. In 1934, she was living (with her husband) at 94 Hancock Avenue in Jersey City. She passed away 20 June 1958 in Florida.
”…The Gefferts were married September 1 and sailed that afternoon on the week’s cruise to Havana. With two sisters from Philadelphia, the Misses Regina and Marguerite Gilligan, who occupied an adjacent stateroom, they clung to a life preserver for six hours before they were hauled from the water into the fishing smack Paramount out of Brielle, under Captain James Bogan of Jersey City, by wierd (sic) coincidence a friend of the Gefferts, who resides at 94 Hancock Avenue, Jersey City.
The honeymooners were taken by ambulance to the Fitkin Memorial Hospital, Neptune, when the doughy vessel landed the 67 it saved from a possible watery grave, and remained there until Tuesday……
‘I was awakened by the smell of smoke, and stepping out of my cabin saw flames, in (?) the end of the corridor. I immediately told my wife to put on a life belt and did so myself, and then awakened the Gilligan girls in the next room. All four of us went from B deck where our rooms were up to A deck but saw the fire was fierce there, so went down to C deck. I told the three to jump, and then I followed into the water. I heard no alarm, and no one apparently went through the corridors to awaken the passengers…” (Matawan Journal, 14 September 1934, p. 2)
”Another incident remembered by the engineer, Weller /of the Paramount/, was his dragging into the boat a man and a woman lashed together. He recognized them as he was pulling them from the water as Philip Geffert and his bride of Jersey City, who were married two weeks ago directly across the street from Weller’s home and were returning on the Morro Castle from a honeymoon in Havana.” (The New York Sun, 10 September 1934, p. 3)
”Rosary services for Mrs. Lillian Geffert, 58, of 2315 SW 27th Lane, who died Friday, will be held at 8 p.m. Sunday at Galgano Chapel. A requiem mass will be at 9:30 a.m. Monday at SS. Peter and Paul Catholic Church, with burial at Woodlawn Park Cemetery.
Mrs. Geffert came to Miami five years ago from Mt. Vernon, N. Y. She is survived by a daughter, Miss Sandra Geffert, a son, Philip, a U. S. Marine, and her mother, Mrs. Mary Lamprecht, all of Miami. Also surviving are a brother, Carl Lamprecht, and two sisters, Mrs. Lee Roegiers and Mrs. Ann Harris of Miami.” (The Miami News, 21 June 1958, p. 11)
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