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Ernest Homer Stacey was the last lighthouse keeper to serve at Rhode Island’s Dutch Island Lighthouse. Before coming there in 1936, he had previously been the lighthouse keeper at Rhode Island’s Whale Rock Lighthouse from 1931 to 1935, and the Duxbury Pier Lighthouse in Duxbury Bay, Massachusetts from 1935 to 1936.
In 1938, while at Dutch Island Lighthouse, he and his family rode out the famous unnamed hurricane that decimated much of New England. He was happy that he was not still stationed at Whale Rock Lighthouse, which was destroyed in the storm, claiming the life of its keeper.
When Dutch Island Lighthouse was automated in 1947, Ernest H. Stacey was transferred to the Sabin Point Lighthouse near Providence, Rhode Island, where he was stationed until 1951.
Born in 1907, Ernest H. Stacey died on January 7, 1982 and was buried in the Saint Raphael Cemetery in Poultney, Vermont. Hopefully, the day will come when a U.S. Lighthouse Service and/or a U.S. Coast Guard lighthouse keeper memorial marker will be placed at his gravesite. (Crissie Stacey Derouchie collection, Lighthouse Digest archives)
Back to the edition of: Jan/Feb 2022
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