Rosie the Riveter

Last night I gave my Rosie the Riveter PowerPoint speech to a terrific audience. Marilyn Hindenlang brought the Certification of Commendation that the Navy awarded to her mother when she worked at Grumman. Her mother's name--I. F. Norton --is on the certificate and she received it on September 2, 1945 (my first birthday!). The "I" is for Irene and the F is for Florence. Norton was her married name; she started work with her original last name--Kacinski. Thank you to Marilyn for sharing this important document; workers at only 5% of all defense factories earned this commendation. Her husband kindly scanned it and made a pdf file and a copy for me.
During the Q & A, a feisty woman said that didn't like the fact that "Rosie the Riveter" became the catch-all phrase during the war for women workers. "It was that song," she said. "It overshadowed the fact that lots of us were doing other things--I operated a lathe machine and then a press and other machines!" At which point, everyone spontaneously applauded her. "Thank you for your service," someone called out! Yes, thank you.
This was my first PowerPoint in which I inserted video clips from WWII propaganda films aimed at recruiting housewives--happily they worked beautifully & added another dimension to the story.