TRAVIS AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. -- Their memories are strong, their lives long, their World War II husbands, gone. There was a symmetry to their welding, and a unique poetry to their lives. They were historically "Rosie the riveters," remembered on iconic posters with a muscle flex, and through their oral histories. June 25, 2019, four of them came together at Travis Air Force Base to share their stories.
All of them came to Richmond, Calif., and ended up working in the Kaiser Shipyards, three as welders, and one as a draftsman. Admittedly, they didn’t even know what a welder was, but soon found out they were quite good at it, even better than the men. In a time when the minimum wage was 25 cents an hour, a journeyman welder made $1.38 an hour, a pipe welder $1 an hour, time and half for Saturdays and double time on Sundays.
“Rosie” Agnes Moore, 99 years old, was married at 16 with a one year old daughter, following her siblings to Salinas. When a radio advertiser said, “Women, do something for your country! Go to the Richmond Shipyards and be a welder,” she did. It was something worthwhile to help bring the “boys” back home from the war.
“Rosie” Kay Morrison, 96, was born in Chico, Calif.. Married to Ray when she was a junior in high school, they moved to work for the war effort. Working in the #2 shipyard, he was a shipwright (carpenter), and she eventually became a welder, both working the graveyard shift to be together. Kay even got to watch the launch of one of the ships she welded.
“Rosie” Marian Wynn, 93, was the third of 11 children, born in the Midwest. Her father answered the call for war work in 1942, and became an electrician leadman in Kaiser Shipyard #3. She rode three days in a Greyhound bus to join him and became a pipe welder. Her father told her to not date or bring home a service man, but she did both, marrying a Navy man.
“Rosie” Marian Sousa, 93, came down from Oregon to Richmond to babysit for her sister. She met and married a Coast Guardsman, completed her senior year of high school, and was recommended for an Engineering Drawing course at University of California Berkeley. Upon graduating, she began work as a draftsman in the Kaiser Shipyards. All the draftsmen were actually women, and the architects were men. During her year there, 747 ships were launched.
Today, both Sousa and Morrison volunteer at the Rosie the Riveter World War II Home Front National Historical Park. If you’d like to learn more about these women who held up their hands and volunteered for the war effort, the Park is located at 1414 Harbour Way South, Richmond, Calif. Their website is: https://www.nps.gov/rori/index.htm.