‘Riveting’ stories still waiting to be recounted

Saturday, June 17, 2000 | 9:07 a.m.

Rosie the Riveter

For more information on the American Rosie the Riveter Association, call (205) 822-4106 or access the website at http: //homepage.altavista.com/ americanrosies/headquarters.html.

During World War II more than 6 million women entered the work force to help out with the war effort. An Alabama woman is hoping to hear from at least 500 of them.

Frances Tunnell Carter, who founded the American Rosie the Riveter Association, plans to compile a book of at least 100 stories of civilian women.

Carter, who worked as a riveter and driller on fuselage engines, said women were bus drivers, filling station operators and forklift drivers.

Some traveled with the USO, helped to sell war bonds and grew victory gardens. Yet few records were kept of their contributions, she said.

Without their aid, "a lot of people think we would have lost the war," she said.

Riveters are "still livin', still kickin', but we're all up in years," she added. "Most of the Rosies are 75, 80 or more."

Carter founded the group Dec. 7, 1998. It has more than 300 members from 35 states and nearly 50 stories. She has yet to gather a collection from Nevadans.

Nevada women participated, however. Basic Magnesium in Henderson hired a number of women when it opened in 1942 to fulfill the demands for magnesium for the war effort.

A local woman is documenting the stories, which she plans to incorporate into her master's thesis.

Preserving such information is common among many groups from World War II, said Mark Hall-Patton, administrator of the Howard Cannon Aviation Museum. "Just about anybody who was involved in any part of the war has developed an organization," Hall-Patton said. "People are recognizing that we are losing those stories."

Carter is looking for stories from any civilian women who volunteered or were paid employees. Their daughters and granddaughters (called Rosebuds) are also being sought. Male auxiliary members (called Rivets) may also participate.

Meetings or annual dues are not required. "Most women aren't looking to join another organization," Carter said. "We're just trying to establish a legacy of what women did to support the war effort.

"If a rosebud cannot remember the grandmother's story and the mother is deceased, then the story is lost forever," she said.

Some served as volunteers who scouted the sky with binoculars, looking for military planes, Carter said. One girl broke eggs all day long to send dried eggs to the boys. Patricia van Betten of Blue Diamond remembers knitting squares in her third-grade classroom; the squares were joined together as blankets for troops. For many women it was the first time they gained mobility and independence.

The government used patriotic propaganda posters glamorizing the working woman with slogans, such as, "Longing won't bring him back sooner ... Get a war job!"

A May 1943 cover of the Saturday Evening Post featured Norman Rockwell's version of Rosie the Riveter, a muscular woman in coveralls and goggles, the American flag behind her.

Possibly the most memorable poster is of a glamourous woman in coveralls flexing her muscle. The slogan reads: "We can do it!"

"It was a time when we felt we better pull together to win that war," Carter said. "It was amazing what people on the home front would do to help."