Fanny Mae Salter cleaning the lens at Turkey Point, 1945.
image found http://www.uscg.mil/history/people/salters01.asp

There are two articles of interest in the Nov/Dec issue of Lighthouse Digest.  One highlights the work of Keeper Fanny Mae Salter.  She served at the Turkey Point Lighthouse after her husband passed away in 1925.  She served 22 years at Turkey Point, retiring in 1947.  Interestingly, she was first determined too young to serve by the Civil Service, but after appeals to her Senator and eventually President Calvin Coolidge, she was appointed as keeper.  She was 43 at the time!  Mrs. Salter became the last female lighthouse keeper in the United States in 1932 and garnered quite a bit of fame, even appearing in a 1936 article in National Geographic.  A local celebrity!  As you all know, Turkey Point was built by John Donahoo in the same style as Concord Point and commenced operation in 1833.  It is also the tallest lighthouse on the Chesapeake Bay.

The second article of note is about the relighting of Pooles Island Lighthouse on Aberdeen Proving Ground.  The lighthouse had been dark for 72 years before the Army decided to relight it using solar panels.  We will probably be seeing more about this lighthouse as Maj. General Nick Justice is using it as a symbol of the restructuring at Aberdeen and it is now their ‘light to the future’. 

Visit The Lighthouse Digest website for more information: http://www.lhdigest.com/