The Rockland woman who captured the world’s imagination as Maine’s lobstering centenarian died Wednesday, having become a beloved symbol of active aging and Maine’s maritime grit after fishing until she was 102.

Virginia “Lobster Lady” Oliver died at Pen Bay Hospital in Rockport at the age of 105, according to Wayne Gray of Rockland, a family friend who made Oliver famous after creating a short film about her for the Rockland Historical Society in 2019.

“She’s a local legend,” Gray said. “She’d get calls from all over the world. She’d say, ‘what’s all the fuss about?’ But then she’d laugh and answer their questions. She liked to talk about lobstering. She liked being out on the water. She liked being her own boss.”

Oliver hadn’t fished much over the last three years, Gray said, but like many Maine lobstermen, she continued to renew her state commercial lobster fishing license just in case. Her most recent license expired in December, according to state records.

“Virginia Oliver leaves behind a remarkable legacy of tireless passion for fishing that will serve as an inspiration to generations of Maine lobster harvesters,” said Carl Wilson, commissioner of Maine’s Department of Marine Resources.

Oliver shared the details of her long life at sea in Gray’s historical society film.

“When I started out with lobstering, no woman ever went, but now there’s quite a few women,” Oliver said in the short film. “That was just the way I lived. I don’t worry about somebody else, what they’re going to do. I do what I want to do.”

“You know,” Oliver told the filmmakers with a laugh, “I’m really independent.”

Born in 1920, Oliver grew up on the Neck, a small island connected by a tidal sandbar to a larger island off Rockland. Her father was a lobster dealer, and her parents ran a general store. She would spend winters on the mainland to attend school.

Oliver began lobstering on her older brother’s boat when she was just 8 years old. She married Max Oliver, a Spruce Head lobsterman. She held jobs at a sardine factory and a printing press before she joined Max on the boat that he named after her.

When her husband died in 2006, Oliver joined her son, also named Max, and fished with him, hauling about 400 traps between them about three times a week until three years ago when he retired at the age of 80, according to Gray, the family friend.

Their work day began at 3 a.m. when Virginia and Max would leave Rockland to drive to Spruce Head. They’d gas up the boat, buy bait and head out at daybreak. She’d drive the boat, fill up the bait bags and band the lobsters. On a good day, they would haul about 200 traps.

When she started, Maine lobstermen were hand hauling wooden traps from the side of wooden fishing boats. Ninety-seven years later, most commercial lobstermen use a mechanical hauler to set wire traps from boats made out of fiberglass and outfitted with GPS technology.

Oliver was the subject of several children’s books, including one published in 2022 by journalist Barbara Walsh and another in 2023 by Bangor author Alexandra S.D. Hinrichs. The latter follows a typical day in Oliver’s life: waking up before dawn to eat a homemade chocolate donut and drink coffee in a Moody’s Diner mug before putting on lipstick and earrings to go fishing.