Doris the Riveter

Doris Robieson Hoplin - A "Rosie the Riveter" Story

4 Rosies in Sacramento 

Those of a certain age will find this story familiar, but there are fewer and fewer of those of a certain age.  It is a story that should not be forgotten.

In 1941, America entered WWII with a drastically under-manned military, less than 1/2 million men in uniform vs 8 million in the Wehrmacht and 2 million in the Japanese Imperial Army. A rapid military ramp-up coinciding with a massive industrial effort led to a severe shortage of workers in America's factories. This marked the beginning of the "Rosie the Riveter" phenomenon. Between 1940 and 1945, nearly 20 million American women went to work in various war-related jobs. By 1944, 475,000 women worked in the aircraft industry, 65% of that sector's workforce. 

Public domain image

The iconic "Rosie the Riveter" image was coined in a song of the same name written by Red Evans & John Loeb and popularized by the big band of Kay Kyser. The inspiration for the song is disputed. It may have been Rosalind Walter, who worked the night shift building F4U Corsair fighters, or Rosie Bonavita in San Diego, but the iconic red kerchiefed Rosie posters became most closely associated with Rose Monroe, who worked at Michigan's Willow Run factory building B-24's. Rosie was also the subject of a documentary film, "The Life and Times of Rosie the Riveter" and a Hollywood drama, "Rosie the Riveter". 

Norman Rockwell put Rosie on the cover of the Saturday Evening Post in 1943. It proved so popular that the War Department used it during War Bond Drives. [Editor note: the original Rosie the Riveter Rockwell painting sold for ~$5 million in 2002]. And Rosie was featured in other propaganda posters, the most famous being the "We Can Do It" poster. 

[Editor note: there was also a lesser known "Wendy the Welder" by Norman Rockwell.]  

"You came out to California, put on your pants, and took your lunch pail to a man’s job. This was the beginning of women’s feeling that they could be something more."

SYBIL LEWIS, RIVETER FOR LOCKHEED

[Editor note: Even if you read no further, take a look at a WWII Rosie photo album in colorized on mashable.com.]

In addition to the civilian workers, nearly 400,000 women served in the U.S. armed forces, including 60,000 nurses. [see my series of 8 posts on WWII Army nurse, Othelia Rosten's Story of the 95th Evac Division]

Doris in Lowry next to a war bond poster

My aunt Doris was Lowry's "Rosie". During WWII, she worked for the U. S. Army Air Force in the manufacturing department in Sacramento and San Bernadino, California. "Doris the Riveter" doesn't have the alliteration of Rosie ... and she didn't drive rivets, but hers is real and specific case of the contribution the women of America made to the war effort. 









Editor note: The following account is edited from Robieson family stories.

Doris worked making parts to repair the shot up planes that came in to McClellan Army Air Force Base in Sacramento, CA., a maintenance, repair and training facility. [Editor note: Jimmy Doolittle's B-24 bombers were retrofitted at McClellan to be "carrier based" planes for his raid on Tokyo in 1942]

She never actually worked on airplane construction – rather making the parts. At times she was asked to hold a part that was likely on a wing, where they needed someone with very small hands. She might hold a rivet while someone pounded it in place. It was a dirty job, sometimes the planes came in all blood spattered.

But her story didn’t start on the West Coast. When she was seventeen she went by train to Portsmouth, Virginia with Uncle Jim and Aunt Verona to help take care of Jane and Joan while Verona got the house set up. Doris said she did a lot of caring for Jane and Joan. She remembers that she turned eighteen while in Virginia and fully intended to get a job on the East Coast.

But Grandma Ellen came down with encephalitis (sleeping sickness) and Grandpa asked Doris to come home to help out. Doris came back to Lowry where she got the twins off to school, made Grandpa’s breakfast, milked the cow, etc. She also worked at the Lowry Implement office and helped put machinery together. There were no men around to work with the war so they asked if Doris could please help out. The farmers couldn’t get new machinery because of the war, so they had to fix used machines and got parts wherever they could. 

Then Claude Middents, the Lowry Druggist, asked if Doris could please come over at noon to cover the shop so the druggist could go home to eat lunch. Uncle Francis worked at the drug store some too. So she had three jobs.

One day, Grandpa Jim told her that a guy would come talk to her and that she should listen to him. Apparently Grandpa knew who and what this was about. The man explained that they were looking for girls to train for the war effort in a six week course in Glenwood. They could take classes in radio, sheet metal, etc. Doris chose sheet metal. She still has some of the things she made in class. She made two dustpans with long handles and gave one to Grandpa Jim that he used in his office in the depot. The other one was used upstairs in the living quarters. They were well built and will last forever.

After the training in Glenwood, about ten girls went by train to McClellan Field in Sacramento, California where they worked making plane parts. There was a call for people to go work in Hawaii. But some guys told the girls that they didn’t want to work in Hawaii because of the blackouts – there would be no movies, no nightlife after work. So they transferred to San Bernadino Air Depot, which became Norton Air Force Base in 1948. Here she was closer to Uncle Clarence who occasionally took her out for dinner. While there, the girls had easy access to Los Angeles and San Diego that had parks and things to do on weekends, which they always had off.

As the war was wrapping up, Doris and four others quit their job and planned to take the bus home the next day. But after thinking harder, she knew her dad would have a fit if she took a bus. So she decided to take the train instead. Uncle Clarence and a friend popped in and Doris said the girls were all packed and planned to take the bus, but Doris would take the train the next day. Uncle Clarence asked ‘What’s wrong with taking the train today?” So they went shopping for some bread and things to make sandwiches for the trip and when they got to the train station with just half an hour to spare. She got on and left just like that.

She talked about the beautiful train trip through the mountains. Many years later she and Uncle Bud flew to Denver and took the Amtrak train to the Emeryville stop, near San Francisco. From there they rented a car and drove to LA. She had researched the Thomas Gainsborough painting ‘The Blue Boy’ and finding it wasn’t in Great Britain where she had thought, rather it was in a private museum in Los

Angeles, one of the reasons for the trip. She got to see the painting and they flew home from there.

When Doris quit her Rosie job, she went to Minneapolis where it was easy to get jobs in the city.  Jeanne Robieson Bennett was working at Abbott Hospital and had a davenport that opened up to a bed, so she could move in with Jeanne and help pay rent. Ruby Robieson Bennett lived on the same block as Northwestern Hospital across 26th street. There were a lot of old houses that had lots of rooms rented out to working girls. One room opened up and Doris lived with Ruby for a while. Doris went to work for Ewald Brothers' Dairy of "Golden Guernsey" fame and was one of the Ewald girls featured in their advertising. 

Doris was glad they finally gave Rosie the recognition she deserved. A few years ago, she was asked to write up what she remembered and sent it in. She believes the information collected was used for a Rosie the Riveter display in Burlington, Washington. And Ken Burns was coming to either St. Cloud or Luverne, Minnesota collect personal accounts of the war for a seven part, 14-hour long documentary called ‘The War’ that aired in 2007 on public TV and premiered in Luverne, Minnesota.  Luverne along with Sacramento, Mobile & Waterbury were the 4 towns featured in the series. Doris wasn’t interviewed for that but the documentary is available on Netflix. 

Doris passed away on Feb 16, 2019, age 95.
Copyright © 2017 Dave Hoplin

Sources:
Robieson's "Doris' Rosie the Riveter" story
History.com http://www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii/rosie-the-riveter
Ken Burns "The War" Sacramento http://www.pbs.org/thewar/the_witnesses_towns_sacramento.htm