Virginia Oliver is the oldest licensed lobster fishing person in the state of Maine — and, her local Rockland Historical Society suspects, possibly the entire world. She began lobstering in 1928, when she was just 8 years old, and still goes out three times a week with her son, depending on the weather. She was supposed to be the Grand Marshall of the Maine Lobster Festival this year until it was cancelled because of COVID-19, but she still got to celebrate this crazy in fashion with this short film about her life that aired on Maine Coast TV on June 6th — Oliver’s 100th birthday.
Her advice for a long life of lobstering is simple: “I have friends. Maybe they’ve lost their husbands. They don’t do nothin’. You got to keep going.”
The Lobster Lady [Vimeo]