Fannie Ware is royalty in the world of crab picking.

In 1955, she picked 100 pounds and 12 ounces in a single workday while working for Elwood Callis. While this achievement looms large, Ware has led a full life outside of the picking house from her home at Cardinal despite never living anywhere else.

She was born in 1932 to Worley and Ophelia Diggs and would end up being one of eight children. Her father ran a grocery store selling dry goods and meats as well as raising livestock to support the family.

The family of 10 did not have electricity or heat, relying instead on a woodstove and oil lamps. When there were only three children, Ware recalled the night when those oil lamps almost spelled disaster for the young family.

“There was a knock at the door,” she remembered. Her mother went to answer, turning up the wick of an oil lamp on the bedside table in the process. The lengthened wick burned taller and hotter than was intended, igniting the wallpaper of the room.

W...