MARTINSBURG, W.Va. (AP) - Although the women haven’t sat down to a typewriter or welded aircraft pieces together in several decades, five regional women’s contributions during World War II were recognized, when they earned title of “Rosie.”
Five regional Rosie the Riveters were honored on Sept. 8 by the Eastern Panhandle Central Labor Council and Thanks! Plain and Simple for their contributions during World War II, from being a secretary to working as a welder at Faircloth in Hagerstown building airplanes.
“Rosie” Anna Hess recalled the first time she heard of the attack on Pearl Harbor and the events that would lead her and her mother to working in plants and factories.
“I was in church the evening when Pearl Harbor was bombed. The next morning, every young man in the area volunteered for service,” she said. “That was the beginning of many exciting things that happened to me.”
Hess said she lied about her age, only being 15, so she could go to work at Mohawk Tire and Rubber building bands for the inside of large truck tires. After the war, Hess’ hours were reduced from eight-hour shifts to four-hour shifts. She continued to work, spending 35 years at Morgan Shirt, a garment factory. She also married a returning solider.
Crena Anderson, 90, then living in Waynesboro, Pennsylvania, said her determination to work during WWII came from a promise she made to her mother to find a job so she could make enough money so her mom would not be on welfare.
“I spent one full day on the bleachers, like at a ball field, waiting for an interview for a job. I spent half of the next day waiting, and then I was interviewed. They trained us for two weeks and we had to pass a test to get the job,” she said.
Anderson worked at Fairchild riveting the C-119 cargo planes. She said through her job she was able to keep her promise to her mother, and even refused other job opportunities in order to continue providing to her mom. After the war, she married a Pearl Harbor survivor and, after he died, eventually married another Pearl Harbor survivor.
Ruth Cline Staples, 91, lived in Brunswick, Maryland when she joined the work forced during the war. She, as well as her sister, worked on the Baltimore & Ohio railroad, performing such tasks as taking the temperature of coal piles to protect against spontaneous combustion and cleaning tracks and right-of-ways.
“The boys were going to war and we knew they needed help. We did everything they would have done except the heavy work. We felt we were helping the boys,” she said.
Ada England, 97, born in Virginia, moved to Portland, Ohio with her husband, John, and their three children in 1943, so she and John could work for the war effort. While he worked in the timber industry, England worked as a welder at the Portland Naval Yard welding aircraft carriers after attending school to learn the trade.
“I worked for four years until the war was over. They needed people. I worked eight and 10 hours a day,” she said, describing it as a tough job and adding that the longer she worked there, the more she worked independently and unsupervised.
Martinsburg native Ethel Bovey worked as a secretary at Fairchild, and used her access to a typewriter to document her experience and the experience of Rosies into poetry. Later, she went on to continue her love of writing by publishing several books and working at The Journal as a reporter and editor for more than 20 years.
The recognition event was part of statewide and nationwide effort by Anne Montague, founder and executive director of Thanks! Plain and Simple, who founded the organization in 2008 with the intent to find and interview Rosies to learn their stories and honor the women who worked.
Montague said she considers a Rosie to be any woman who feels she contributed in any way to the war effort, from working in the industrial industry to agriculture, nursing or in any capacity.
“When I started, I couldn’t find (a Rosie). I was looking in the wrong places. Eventually I found and interviewed a woman and when I walked away I was so incredibly excited and energized. I looked at that tape recorder in my hand, just a cassette tape, and I said ’there’s no way I’m going to put this on the shelf,’” she said.
“I had no idea how rewarding it would be. Most of all, I had no idea how much we could learn, as a country, from these women, and we have so little time,” she said. “The point is, it’s people connecting to the Rosies.”
Additional speakers for the event included Hugo Kessing and Sammi Brown, field communications and community outreach for the AFL-CIO. The event was emceed by John Christensen, vice president for the Eastern Panhandle Central Labor Council.
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Information from: The Journal, https://journal-news.net/
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