In 1886, lighthouse keeper John Walker’s last words to his wife Kate as he died died from pneumonia, were “Mind the light, Kate.” Kate, then 38 with two teenage children, took his final wish to heart. She minded the light — from that day on, every single day, for more than three decades.

Though standing only 4’10” tall and weighing around 100 pounds, Katherine Walker served as the keeper of the Robbins Reef Lighthouse for 35 years, following the death of her husband. In addition to the arduous task of keeping the light burning, she also rowed across the choppy waters of Upper New York harbor, a mile each way, to take her two children to school on Staten Island, weather permitting. 

An immigrant from Germany, Kate met and married John Walker, who in 1883 was appointed keeper of the Robbins Reef Lighthouse. Kate found herself living on a reef inhabited solely by harbor seals. (Robbins Reef comes from the early Dutch name, “Robyns Rift,” or Seal Rocks.) 

At first, the Light-House Establishment, which merged into the Coast Guard years later, refused Kate’s application to be the keeper. While officially John’s assistant for three years (at $30 per month, paid annually) she knew the job and how to maintain the light. But she was a woman, and a petite 4’10” at that, and the government men believed she could not withstand the rigors of the job. After offering the post to two men, who both refused, Kate was hired at $600 per year.

“I grew to love it here,” she told The New York Times in 1909, noting the satisfaction of doing important work, the comfort of routine and isolation mixed with a few social visits. “Someone could offer me a millionaire’s mansion and I’d feel like I was in prison.” Yet she bristled when told she had nothing in common with women in more conventional roles. She thoroughly enjoyed her domestic duties and entertaining the occasional fair-weather visitors on her ‘veranda.’ But, she pointed out firmly, “Maintaining this light is more work than running any household or any child,” she said. 

In her tenure, Kate was credited with some 50 rescues. The most rewarding, she recalled, came one winter night when a schooner crashed onto the reef. Five men were cast into the cold seas. Launching the small boat she used to ferry her children to school, Kate bravely rowed through the surging wreckage and rescued all five. All safely aboard, one of them asked: “Where’s Scottie?” Searching in the dark she caught a glimpse of a small dog and hauled him aboard, too. Back at the light she wrapped Scottie in a towel and forced him to drink warm coffee. The men left the next day and the skipper returned three days later to claim the dog. As the captain climbed down into his waiting boat, Scottie looked up into Kate’s eyes and whined. “That’s when I learned dogs could weep,” she said, “there were tears in his eyes.”

Kate kept the light until 1919 when she retired at age 71. She left behind several enduring legacies. For years afterward, harbor pilots referred to Robbin’s Reef as “Kate’s Light.” And, a testimony to her fortitude and spirit, when the Coast Guard last manned the light in 1966, they had replaced this diminutive woman with a four-man crew.

The USCGS Katherine Walker (WLM-552) a 175-foot coastal buoy tender, built in 1996, and known as the “Keeper of New York Harbor” is named in her honor.

The Noble Maritime Collection is now the proud steward of Robbins Reef Lighthouse.

Here is Bob Wright and Harbortown Revue singing Kate Walker.