To Do: Screening of Heroic Lighthouse Keeper Ida Lewis Documentary

Ida Lewis is considered America’s most famous lighthouse keeper, but she’s hardly a household name.

That’s what makes her story so much more remarkable, if that’s even possible.

The tender of the light shining from Lime Rock Lighthouse for more than 50 years, Lewis saved 18 people, according to official records. But she is believed to have saved many more.

The slight woman weighed just a hair over 100 pounds but her tremendous rescues of Civil War soldiers making their way to Fort Adams made her a celebrated hero, earning her a place on the cover of Harper’s Weekly.

The public is invited to take a deep dive into Ida Lewis’ story on Nov. 5, when the Newport Historical Society screens America’s Forgotten Heroine: Ida Lewis, Keeper of the Light.

The screening, at 5:30 p.m., will present the 45-minute documentary produced by Marian Gagnon of Goodnight Irene Productions, a local film company.

The film “explores the myriad decisions which led to a life of both fame and isolation, Ida’s unexpected celebrity in Newport as well as across the U.S., and the impact she inadvertently had on the early women’s rights movement,” according to a Newport Historical Society news release.

Selected for the 2014 R.I. International Film Festival, Gagnon’s goal with this film is to renew the “national memory” of Ida Lewis as an American heroine not only in her hometown of Newport and throughout R.I., but across the United States. This documentary was made possible with the help of grants from the R.I. Council for the Humanities (RICH), the Rhode Island State Council for the Arts (RISCA), and a donation from the Ida Lewis Yacht Club.

America’s Forgotten Heroine takes place at the NHS Resource Center, located at 82 Touro Street, Newport, RI. General admission costs $5 per person; $1 for NHS members. Please RSVP, as seating is limited, to mdelaire@NewportHistory.org or call 401-846-0813 x110.

Photo: Ida poses in front of Lime Rock Lighthouse with her dog and her brother, Rudd, in the background. (Courtesy: Goodnight Irene Productions)