LIVERMORE – She’s nearing 92 and Ethel “Billie” Gammon keeps on spreading the word about Maine people and their accomplishments and adventures, generations ago.

She has organized the 15th annual Norlands Humanities Conference to be held from 12:30 p.m. Thursday, June 5, through 1 p.m. Saturday, June 7, at the Norlands-Washburn Living History Center.

“We are having a ‘wow’ of a conference,” Gammon said.

This year’s theme is “Mainers and Their Neighbors Who Went Into the World.”

“People just didn’t stay home,” Gammon said. “They went around and did something.”

The conference will feature stories about New England and maritime people who ventured beyond the region’s boundaries. Some, like the Washburn family, found fame and fortune, Gammon said.

Others did interesting things, including Mesannie Wilkins, a Minot woman who rode her horse to California, she added.

“I promised when I got the money the first time, I would do it for 10 years,” Gammon said of writing for grant-funding to help with the conference. “This is the 15th year.”

She remembers promising she’d do something scholarly with it and she continues to do so.

While most of the programs will be presented at the Washburn Memorial Library on the grounds of Norlands, evening programs and meals will be held at the North Livermore Baptist Church on Route 4 in Livermore.

Women at the church do the meals, Gammon said, fondly referring to two of them as the “cooking grandmas,” Marge Pritsky and Beverly Drown.

Among the presentations of papers during the sessions are “Gold, Guts and Glory: Mainers Gone West” and “Blue Water Mainers” and “Maine Women Made Their Mark in the World.” A list of the full conference program will soon be listed at www.norlands.org. Registration forms are currently available on that Web site.

“I don’t allow them to stand with a paper,” Gammon said of the presenters and their topics. “They have to stand up and tell it.”

People give their presentations and then discussion begins.

“This is a very happy event. People learn best when they’re happy,” she said.

Two evening programs are scheduled for 7 p.m. Thursday, June 5, and 7 p.m. Friday, June 6, and are free to the public, she said.

On Thursday night, Kevin McShane will show “Last of the Saddle Tramps,” a docudrama about Wilkins.

“It’s a great adventure story of a gutsy Maine woman,” Gammon said.

Friday night, Monica Grabin will present a singing history.

By the end of the program, everyone will be singing, Gammon said.

The conference is sponsored by the Washburn-Norlands Foundation in association with the University of Maine at Farmington and St. Michael’s College in Vermont, and support of the Maine Humanities Council, she said.

Registration fee for the conference is $15 with dinner and luncheons additional. More information may be obtained by e-mailing Gammon at [email protected] or calling her at 897-2246.

There will 15 or 16 different speakers, Gammon said, and they’ll stay with area residents.