America's Forgotten Heroine: Ida Lewis, Keeper of the Light

Overview

America's Forgotten Heroine tells the dramatic - and forgotten - story of this country's most famous lighthouse keeper and one of the bravest women in American maritime history. Ida Zoradia Lewis lived and died while tending the light on a small outcropping of Lime Rock in Newport (R.I.) Harbor from 1857 to 1911, saving the lives of more than 25 people - and a prize sheep - from certain peril. Told for the first time on film, this historical documentary provides an intimate portrayal of Ida Lewis from age 15 to 69. It resurrects her story of both fame and isolation, the impact she inadvertently had on the early women's rights movement, and the passion and moral fiber she intrinsically brought to her work as a lighthouse keeper and unlikely heroine.