{"id":334171,"date":"2026-01-27T12:59:02","date_gmt":"2026-01-27T17:59:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.etrafficlane.com\/60dollarmiracle\/maines-lobster-lady-virginia-oliver-who-worked-decades-in-industry-dies-at-105"},"modified":"2026-01-27T12:59:06","modified_gmt":"2026-01-27T17:59:06","slug":"maines-lobster-lady-virginia-oliver-who-worked-decades-in-industry-dies-at-105","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.etrafficlane.com\/60dollarmiracle\/maines-lobster-lady-virginia-oliver-who-worked-decades-in-industry-dies-at-105","title":{"rendered":"Maine&#8217;s &#8216;lobster woman&#8217; Virginia Oliver, who labored a long time in business, dies at 105"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div data-testid=\"prism-article-body\">\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao MvWXB TjIXL aGjvy ebVHC \"><a class=\"zZygg UbGlr iFzkS qdXbA WCDhQ DbOXS tqUtK GpWVU iJYzE \" data-testid=\"prism-linkbase\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/lifestyle-oddities-maine-61b5c7bd559a5636e840c206cb990a32\">Virginia Oliver<\/a>, one of the oldest lobster fishers in the world who trapped crustaceans in Maine for nearly a century, has died. She was 105.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">Born in Rockland, Maine, Oliver started trapping lobsters at age 8 alongside her father and older brother at a time when few women worked on the water in the male-dominated industry. She fell in love with the business and went on to become known as the \u201clobster lady\u201d as she faithfully tended traps for decades <\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">\u201cI like doing it, I like being along the water,\u201d she told The Associated Press in 2021. \u201cAnd so I\u2019m going to keep on doing it just as long as I can.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">Oliver died Wednesday, according to a family obituary published Monday. <\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">\u201cHer life has been celebrated in books, articles, and across social media platforms worldwide,\u201d the obituary states. \u201cYet despite her renown, she remained quiet and humble, greeting everyone with a quick, radiant smile and eyes that literally twinkled.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">As she worked on the water over the years, Oliver watched the lobster industry drastically evolve, from a working-class food to a pricey delicacy. Lobsters fetched 28 cents a pound on the docks when she first started trapping them. Today, it&#8217;s 22 times that at $6.14 a pound. <\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">Yet many of the aspects of the job remained the same. She had to get up in the early morning hours \u2014 long before dawn \u2014 and use small fish called menhaden, or pogies, to lure lobsters from a boat once owned by her late husband, the \u201cVirginia.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">\u201cVirginia was more than a local icon; she was a living piece of Maine\u2019s maritime history,\u201d the Maine Lobster Festival said in a statement honoring Oliver, where she once served as grand marshal of the festival&#8217;s parade. <\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC eTIW sUzSN \">Maine Gov. Janet Mills, who once presented Oliver with a special state recognition for her birthday, posted on social media that the lobster lady&#8217;s life inspired &#8220;the next century of hardworking Maine fishermen.&#8221;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/abcnews.go.com\/US\/wireStory\/maines-lobster-lady-virginia-oliver-worked-decades-lobster-129603428\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Virginia Oliver, one of the oldest lobster fishers in the world who trapped crustaceans in Maine for nearly a century, has died. She was 105. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":334174,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[12300,2697,12299,11059,12301,7423,12297,12302,156,2313,12298],"class_list":["post-334171","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-edible-crustaceans","tag-governor","tag-grand-marshal","tag-janet-mills","tag-lobster","tag-maine","tag-rockland","tag-seafood","tag-social-media","tag-social-media-platforms","tag-virginia-oliver"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.etrafficlane.com\/60dollarmiracle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/334171","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.etrafficlane.com\/60dollarmiracle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.etrafficlane.com\/60dollarmiracle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.etrafficlane.com\/60dollarmiracle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.etrafficlane.com\/60dollarmiracle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=334171"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.etrafficlane.com\/60dollarmiracle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/334171\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":334173,"href":"https:\/\/www.etrafficlane.com\/60dollarmiracle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/334171\/revisions\/334173"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.etrafficlane.com\/60dollarmiracle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/334174"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.etrafficlane.com\/60dollarmiracle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=334171"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.etrafficlane.com\/60dollarmiracle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=334171"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.etrafficlane.com\/60dollarmiracle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=334171"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}