The Virginia House of Delegates unanimously approved House Resolution 320 last week honoring Middlesex County’s own Deborah Pratt for a lifetime of shucking oysters and representing the Virginia seafood industry as a world-class oyster shucker.
Virginia State Del. Keith Hodges, R-Urbanna, presented the resolution for approval on the house floor as he introduced Pratt, who was standing in the balcony. He introduced her as a “Super Star of Oyster Shuckers” and an icon in the oyster shucking world.
Pratt grew up in Middlesex County on the banks of the Rappahannock River near some of the most fertile oyster grounds in the United States. Her father, mother and sister were all professional shuckers. Her father and mother met in a shucking house. She first learned to shuck oysters by watching her sister Clementine Macon open oysters in their backyard.
She has represented the State of Virginia and Urbanna Oyster Festival numerous times at the U.S. Oyster Festival’s national oyster shucking competition at St. Mary’s County, Maryland.
She has also represented the United States four times at the Oyster Shucking World Championship in Galway, Ireland. She finished second in the world in 1997 and third in 1994. She is one of only two Virginia women shuckers to ever place in the top three at the international world competition. The only other Virginian to place in the world title competition in Ireland was Middlesex’s Sara Hammond, who finished third in 1984.
Pratt is a professional shucker who has shucked oysters during the oyster season at Walton’s Seafood in Urbanna. She has been featured in national and regional publications such as Southern Living magazine and she was the cover girl for several years for the “Virginia is For Lovers” campaign where her photo was taken riding an oyster float to promote state tourism.
Pratt and her sister Clementine can shuck two dozen oysters each in less than three minutes and that is about 7.5 seconds for an oyster.
“You cannot eat them that fast,” said Hodges to laughter on the House floor.
Hodges said Pratt has been a star at the annual Richmond Folklife Festival in the Oyster Smackdown portion of the festival and it has become one of the biggest draws at the event.
At the conclusion, Pratt received a unanimous vote from House delegates and a standing ovation from state representatives from across the state.
