Virginia Oliver, age 101, works as a sternman, measuring and banding lobsters on her son Max Oliver’s boat, on Aug. 31, 2021, off Rockland, Maine. Copyright 2021 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

Author Barbara Walsh will join us to talk about her new children’s book, The Lobster Lady. The real Lobster Lady, Virginia Oliver, and her son, Max, will be present and will join us in the Historical Society Museum, after the program, for cookies and lemonade and to sign copies of the book with the author.

In 2019, Rockland Historical Society Board Member Wayne Gray and film maker Dale Schierholt produced a film about the lobstering life of Virginia Oliver to show at the Rockland Historical Society on her 100th birthday in June 2020. But the pandemic made that impossible, so the Historical Society shared the film on public access TV. Folks from 207, WCSH TV, and Channel 6 saw the film and produced a feature story about Mrs. Oliver. The story was picked up by national news organizations; NBC news will be back to film the Lobster Lady riding in the Lobster Festival Parade this year. The Rockland Historical Society is proud to be sharing the exciting history of Rockland with the world.

Barbara Walsh is a Pulitzer Prize winning journalist who has worked for newspapers in Florida, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Maine, and Ireland. She wrote the biography August Gale: A Father and Daughter’s Journey into the Storm and has written five children’s books; these include Sammy in the Sky, illustrated by Jamie Wyeth, The Goose Lady, The Deer Man, Rhoda’s Rescue, and The Lobster Lady, about Rockland’s famous Virginia Oliver who is still lobstering at 102 years old.

This event will take place in the Community Room. Please email elewis@rocklandmaine.gov FMI.