[6][a] The three-room cottage where she was born is now the Molly Brown Birthplace and Museum; it is on 600 Butler Street in Hannibal.

[12] Called Maggie by her family, she attended her maternal aunt Mary O'Leary's grammar school, which was across the street from her home.

Their neighborhood was a tight-knit Irish Catholic community, where people traveled westward through the town for the gold fields.

In 1897, they built a summer house, Avoca Lodge, in Southwest Denver near Bear Creek, which gave the family more social opportunities.

Margaret became a charter member of the Denver Woman's Club,[19] whose mission was the improvement of women's lives by continuing education and philanthropy.

Adjusting to the trappings of a society lady, Brown became immersed in the arts and fluent in French, German, Italian, and Russian.

She also worked with Judge Ben Lindsey to help destitute children and establish one of the United States' first juvenile courts.

[19] Brown spent the first months of 1912 in Paris, visiting her daughter and as part of the John Jacob Astor IV party, until she received word from Denver that her eldest grandchild, Lawrence Palmer Brown Jr., was ill. She immediately booked passage on the first available liner leaving for New York, the RMS Titanic.

[13]: 2–3  Brown boarded the Titanic as a first-class passenger on the evening of April 10, conveyed aboard the tender SS Nomadic at Cherbourg, France,[13]: 3–4  and sailed for New York City that night.

Hichens was fearful that if they were to go back, the lifeboat would either be pulled down due to suction, or those in the water would swamp the boat in an effort to get in.

The committee worked to secure basic necessities for the second- and third-class survivors, and even provided informal counseling.

[24] In 1914, six years before the Nineteenth Amendment granted women the right to vote, Brown ran for Colorado's U.S. Senate seat, but she ended her campaign to serve abroad as the director of the American Committee for Devastated France during World War I.

Also in 1914, she contributed to miners and their families after the 1914 Ludlow Massacre[20] and she helped organize the International Women's Rights conference that year, which was held in Newport, Rhode Island.

For her work organizing female ambulance drivers, nurses, and food distributors, Brown was awarded the French Legion of Honor in 1932.

[2] Brown’s fame as a Titanic survivor helped her promote the philanthropic and activism issues she felt strongly about.

[20] She was concerned about the rights of workers and women, education and literacy for children, historic preservation, and commemoration of the bravery and chivalry displayed by the men aboard the Titanic.

[29] In 1965, astronauts Gus Grissom and John Young named their Gemini spacecraft Molly Brown in her honor.