Helen Churchill Candee - Legacy

Legacy

Helen Churchill Candee was a supporting character in novelist Danielle Steel's No Greater Love, based on the sinking of the Titanic.

She was also portrayed in cameo in the Walt Disney 3-D documentary Ghosts of the Abyss (2003), about producer James Cameron's expedition to the wreck of the Titanic. Her part was played by actress Adriana Valdez. The scene in which Candee's character was featured recreated her supposed visit to the bow of the liner on the evening before it sank. This story, based on a possibly romanticized manuscript of Candee's, is believed to have inspired the famous "sunset" love scene between characters Jack and Rose in the earlier motion picture Titanic (1997).

Titanic-related items belonging to Helen Candee, including a flask and a locket she carried with her on board, were auctioned for record sums in 2005-06. Letters and the manuscript thought to have inspired Cameron were also sold by Candee's family at this time. In 2007, Helen Candee's former Washington home at 1621 New Hampshire Avenue was acquired by The Fund for American Studies. In 2008, her Angkor the Magnificent was re-released in a special edition that includes a new foreword and a biographical profile. In 2009, the newly-appointed Ambassador to Cambodia, Carol Rodley, presented a copy of the reissued Angkor as a protocol gift to King Norodom Sihamoni on her arrival at the palace in Phnom Penh, Khmer.