A ROSIE THE RIVETER STORY-WORLD WAR II
During the war, our young women worked in the wartime factories. My mother was a part of this “Rosie the Riveter” corps. Louise was born in Indiana in 1922. She was living with her parents, Malcolm and Pauline Woodward in Chicago, right before the war began. She had the opportunity to attend Smith College for two years. After her sophomore year, she left college to work in a factory, painting aircraft nose cones. Because the United States was forced into the war by Franklin Roosevelt, young people interrupted their lives to serve their country.
She never told me what factory she worked for, or for how long. She did tell stories of single co-workers who would go to the bars/restaurants after a very long workday. She never drank alcohol, so she took up smoking cigarettes to have “something to do with her hands”. During the war, she was engaged to a young man who was killed in action.
In 1947, my mother’s family moved to Tucson, Arizona. She began learning about Southwestern silver and turquoise jewelry, in partnership with the Zuni House. She began designing her own jewelry. She designed a concha belt that won first prize at the Inter-Tribal Ceremonial in Gallup, New Mexico. In 1950, she opened the Knife Wing shop in downtown Tucson. She had her own in-house silversmith, and designed custom jewelry for clients.
Louise met her husband (Air Force bomber navigator) in Tucson and had two children (Nancy & John). She went back to college in Tucson, earned a PhD in Political Science, moved to Alabama, and became the department chairperson at the University of South Alabama. She retired in Mobile, and passed away in 2002. I am very proud of my “Rosie the Riveter”; I miss her every day. She was just as much of a war hero as my father.
Generously provided by Nancy L. Dengler Fregoso.