Idawalley Zoradia Lewis[a] (February 25, 1842 – October 24, 1911) was an American lighthouse keeper noted for her heroism in rescuing people from the seas.

Ida Lewis expanded her domestic duties to include caring for him and a seriously ill sister and also, with her mother's assistance, tending the light: filling the lamp with oil at sundown and again at midnight, trimming the wick, polishing carbon off the reflectors, and extinguishing the light at dawn.

She rowed her younger siblings to school every weekday and fetched supplies from town as they were needed.

Responding to criticism that it was un-ladylike for women to row boats, Lewis said that "None – but a donkey, would consider it 'un-feminine', to save lives.

Ida finally received the official appointment as keeper in 1879, largely through the efforts of an admirer, General Ambrose Everett Burnside, a Civil War hero who became a Rhode Island governor and United States senator.

During her 54 years on Lime Rock she is credited with saving 18 lives,[10] although unofficial reports suggest the number may have been as high as 25.

Lewis's fame spread quickly following the 1869 rescue, as a reporter was sent from the New-York Tribune to record her deeds.

A parade was held in her honor in Newport on Independence Day, followed by the presentation of a sleek, mahogany rowboat with red velvet cushions, gold braid around the gunwales, and gold-plated oar-locks.

During her lifetime, Lewis was called "the Bravest Woman in America" and her exploits were detailed in the national press.

She met President Ulysses S. Grant, Vice-President Schuyler Colfax, General William Tecumseh Sherman, and Admiral George Dewey, in addition to many of the wealthy and prominent people who summered in Newport.

[13] In 1995, the United States Coast Guard named the first of a new class of buoy tenders for Ida Lewis.

The USCGC Ida Lewis (WLM-551), the lead ship of the 175' Keeper class, is stationed at Middletown, Rhode Island.

[18][19] English folk singer Reg Meuross's 2019 album RAW includes a song called "The Eyes of Ida Lewis".

The song tells the story of Ida Lewis in the voice of an imagined suitor whose life she had saved.