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It’s hard to believe that a lady who tended a lighthouse for over 60 years, starting when she was 12 years old and was officially credited with saving 21 lives, was buried in an unmarked grave. Finally, after all these years, not only was her gravesite finally marked with an appropriate tombstone, but a new 154-foot Sentinel-class Fast Response United States Coast Guard Cutter was named in her honor. Her name is Kathleen A. Moore and she was one of America’s famous lady lighthouse keepers. She dedicated her life to the service of others at the Black Rock Harbor Lighthouse on Fayerweather Island in Bridgeport, Connecticut.
As part of the events leading up to the commissioning of the new Coast Guard vessel, representatives of Bollinger Shipyards, thanks to the efforts of local historian Mary Witkoski, were able to locate Kathleen Moore’s unmarked grave site at the Mountain Grove Cemetery in Bridgeport, Connecticut and immediately set out to place a proper tombstone at the site. The new tombstone, paid for Bollinger Shipyards, was dedicated at a ceremony on May 8, 2014 just a few days before the new Coast Guard Cutter Kathleen Moore was commissioned on May 14, 2014.
In 1817 Stephen Moore was appointed the keeper of the Black Rock Harbor Lighthouse on Fayerweather Island, Bridgeport, Connecticut; however, when he became disabled, his daughter, Kathleen, at the age of 12, assumed her father’s light keeping duties. When her father died at the age of 98 in 1871, the government officially appointed Kathleen A. Moore as the lighthouse keeper. She was 76 years old. She finally retired in 1878 and moved into a home where she could see the lighthouse in the distance.
To learn more about Kathleen Moore, you can refer to the story “Fayerweather Island Brought Back to Life” in the July, 2000 edition of Lighthouse Digest and the story “Women of the Light,” in the March 2004, edition of Lighthouse Digest. Both stories can also be found in the on-line archives at www.LighthouseDigest.com.
This story appeared in the
Jul/Aug 2014 edition of Lighthouse Digest Magazine. The print edition contains more stories than our internet edition, and each story generally contains more photographs - often many more - in the print edition. For subscription information about the print edition, click here.
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