This is the audio from a live stream on September 16, 2026. The guest is Lenore Skomal, author of an acclaimed book about the celebrated lighthouse heroine Ida Lewis.
Ida Lewis began tending Lime Rock Light in Newport, Rhode Island, at the age of fifteen after her father, the keeper of the light, was disabled by a stroke. Ida was officially appointed to the job in 1879, and she remained at Lime Rock until her death in 1911. Ida saved at least 18 lives during her light keeping career, and she gained national prominence after one of her rescues in 1869.
Lenore Skomal’s book on Ida Lewis, The Lighthouse Keeper’s Daughter, was originally published in 2002. A new edition has just been published, and that’s one of the main topics of discussion in the conversation you’re about to hear. Joining Jeremy D’Entremont as co-host of this episode is Averie Shaughnessy-Comfort, executive director of Presque Isle Light Station in Erie, Pennsylvania.
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U.S. Lighthouse Society Historian Jeremy D’Entremont is the author of 24 books and hundreds of articles on lighthouses and maritime history. He is a past president of the American Lighthouse Foundation and founder of Friends of Portsmouth Harbor Lighthouses, and he has lectured and narrated cruises throughout the Northeast and in other regions. He is also the producer and host of the U.S. Lighthouse Society’s weekly podcast, “Light Hearted.” He can be emailed at Jeremy@uslhs.org