Lights - Page: 18 of 54

There was a woman who lived in Lake Havasu City who painted lighthouses. It all began 40 years ago with her first painting
of the Portland Head Light in Cape Elizabeth, Maine. Now, Shirley Richardson and her husband, Kemp, will forever bring light to boaters passing through the night on Lake Havasu. A replica of the Portland Head Light was hoisted to the top of Pilot Rock, 5.5 miles south of London Bridge, Saturday as a memorial to the woman who painted lighthouses for the local Lighthouse Club. Her dying wish was for her first painted lighthouse to adorn the rock her husband climbed years ago. Shirley Richardson died in June 2009. Her husband preceded her in death. “It brings a sense of closure and fulfillment to see those wishes through and to know that they were here and loved this spot,” said her son, Dan Richardson. The structure is the 19th lighthouse the Lighthouse Club has erected since its 2000 inception. Members of the club and the Leaping Lizards Tribe, a local rock-climbing group, pulled the estimated 100-pound fiberglass structure to the top of the rock. A pulley system of ropes was used to hoist the structure. It took about three hours to secure the lighthouse to the top of Pilot Rock. All of the lighthouses around Lake Havasu have three nautical-mile navigation lights and are replicas of other lighthouses around the country. But Saturday’s lighthouse was more than just No. 19 to the Richardsons. “She loved (this lighthouse),” Dan Richardson said. “It’s her favorite.”