‘Rosie’ recounts WWII services

WASHINGTON - Mae Krier went to Capitol Hill hoping to get Congress to recognize March 21 as an annual ‘Rosie the Riveter Day of Remembrance’. Rosie the Riveter was an iconic WWII poster showing a female riveter flexing her muscle. Krier is also advocating for lawmakers to award all “Rosies” - women involved in the war effort at home – with Congressional Gold Medals for their work in the defense industry producing tanks, planes, ships and other materiel for the war effort. During a visit to the Pentagon on March 20, Krier told airmen that her life-long mission is to inspire the poster’s “We Can Do It!” attitude among girls. The 93-year-old walked around the Pentagon’s Air Force corridors, giving away red polka-dotted Rosie the Riverter bandannas. Krier grew up in North Dakota during the Dust Bowl and Great Depression of the 1930s. After the Japanese sneak attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, young men everywhere began streaming from home to the war. The war “took the heart out of our small town” and all across America, she said. But in 1943, she set off for Seattle and would up as a riveter at an aircraft factory working on B-17 and B-29 bombers. “We loved our work. We loved our flag. We all pulled together to win the war,” she said. “It was a good time in America.” (Source: Defense.gov 03/21/19) The Real Rosie: Naomi Parker Fraley, the woman believed to be the "real" Rosie the Riveter, died in 2018 at age 96, and was not recognized as the inspiration for the famous WWII-era poster until 2015. During WWII, Fraley was a factory worker at Alameda (Calif.) Naval Station. She was one of millions of women across America who filled the labor force during the war. A press photographer took a picture of her. Over 60 years later, Fraley attended a convention for Rosie the Riveters and saw a photograph displayed indicating it was the likely inspiration behind the iconic image of Rosie the Riveter in the "We can do it" poster. Fraley recognized the picture as the one the photographer captured of her. But the photo was credited as being of another woman: Geraldine Hoff Doyle. Seton Hall University Professor James J. Kimble has studied the origins of Rosie the Riveter image for years. In 2015, he announced that the original photograph with a caption that named the woman as Naomi Parker. Oddly enough, Rosie the Riveter has emerged as a cultural icon, gaining greater significance over the years and evolving far beyond her original purpose as a recruitment aid to attract temporary female workers during wartime. (Source: CNN 01/23/18)