Ruby Lee Norris
Steamboat Era Museum Oral History Project
These interviews were recorded with residents of the Northern Neck and Middle Peninsula of Virginia during 2003 who knew much about the history of steamboating in the region. Included were many now no longer living, who worked on the boats and wharves, those who rode them as passengers and crew, and those who shipped produce and manufactured items or ordered goods for delivery. At the time, copies of the recordings were provided to the Steamboat Era Museum in Irvington, Virginia for use in various educational programs.
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Rubie Lee Norris (1916-2012). Then still living in a pre-Civil War house built by her great uncle near Topping on the Rappahannock River, Norris remembered riding the steamers to college in Fredericksburg and told vivid stories of clerking in her father’s store, which was supplied by steamers.
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