It was the summer of 1970 when Rita Willey won the first sardine packing contest at the Maine Lobster & Seafood Festival in Rockland. She was 31 years old and had been packing sardines for 14 years.
The contest was a brilliant marketing idea by the Maine Sardine Council to re-energize an industry that was slowly dying since its peak in the early 1950s. Pitched as a pseudo athletic event, the contest drew thousands of rabid spectators and offered cash rewards for the top three contestants with the winner earning $300, which translates to nearly $2,500 today.
Cutting off the heads and tails of small herring and stuffing them into cans had been a century-old Maine occupation by the time the first contest was held. Sardine packing, a job mainly performed by women, was not done for glory but for the paycheck it provided. It required long hours in cold, damp canning factories while standing on concrete floors and wielding sharp scissors (which occasionally missed their targets).It would be decades before terms like repetitive strain injury or carpal tunnel syndrome would enter the lexicon. If you didn’t work because you were injured, you didn’t get paid.
In addition to the prize money, trophies and local bragging rights, she was invited onto the Johnny Carson’s Tonight Show…
Most canneries used a piecework pay structure—the more cans you packed, the more you made. The work was seasonal and when the catch was down, so was the opportunity to make money.
In the first contest, Rita packed 67 cans, each holding eight fish, in 8 minutes—an average of one fish per second! She broke her own record two years later and went on to win five of the eight contests held from 1970 through 1983.
To say she became a celebrity would be an understatement. In addition to the prize money, trophies and local bragging rights, she was invited onto the Johnny Carson’s Tonight Show and other nationally syndicated television shows.
She met Maine Sens. George Mitchell and Edmund Muskie and other politicians and stars. Scores of articles were written about her. She even received fan mail.
Her biggest fan was her husband Lanny, also a packer. He lovingly archived all of the articles and mementos into an album that stands a foot high. For a number of years, her trophies and memorabilia were on display at the Sardine Museum in Jonesport, and Rita would make appearances there to sign autographs.
Rita remained humble despite her pride in her accomplishments. When her sister, also a packer, once told her that she thought she could beat her, Rita calmly replied, “Put your scissors where your mouth is.”
Rita arguably became the most well-known sardine packer, but she was not the only champion. Patricia Havenor of Friendship won the contest several times. Ruth Benner of Owls Head was another winner. It’s fair to say that all of the women who packed should be considered winners. It was a tough job, but the women who did it had grit.
The Penobscot Marine Museum will be celebrating the Maine sardine industry this and next season. Rita’s trophies and memorabilia will be coming out of her closet and on display, and perhaps she will even make an appearance or two!
The museum opens for the season on May 23. Be sure to see our website, penobscotmarinemuseum.org, for hours and events. The museum is located on the north side of Route 1 in downtown Searsport.
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