[1] Rosalie Ida Blun was born in 1849 in Worms to Nathan Blün (1815–1879) and his wife Wilhelmine "Mindel" (née Freudenberg; 1814–1868).

She was the fifth of seven children, including Amanda (1839–1907), Elias Nathan (1842–1878), Louis (1843–1927), Augusta Carolina (1845–1905), Moritz (1850–1858) and Abraham Blun (1852–1881).

When Isidor traveled as part of his duties as a U.S. Representative for New York, or as co-owner of Macy's, they exchanged letters daily.

She and Isidor had seven children: Among her great-great-granddaughters are singer Mikaela Mullaney Straus, known by her stage name King Princess,[2] and Wendy Rush (née Weil), the widow of Stockton Rush who founded the deep-sea tourism company OceanGate and lost his life on a dive in a submersible in 2023 to the wreck of the Titanic.

She was portrayed by Elsa Raven in the 1997 film Titanic, which inaccurately depicts the Strauses dying together in their C deck stateroom.

In addition to the cenotaph at Woodlawn Cemetery, there are three other memorials to Isidor and Ida Straus in their adopted home of New York City: