Remembering All the Rosies...

The dwindling number of Rosie the Riveters like 104-year-old Roberta “Randy” Tidmore were recently honored in New Orleans. At 104 years old, Ms. Tidmore has outlived most of the people she served beside, worked beside, and volunteered beside.

She has lived through the Great Depression, WW2, the Cold War, and the dawn of the digital age. During her life she helped build bomber wings as a Rosie the Riveter, joined the Marine Corps during wartime, worked as a United Airline stewardess, worked at a tomato farm in Mexico, and spent decades volunteering in her community.

At the end of May, Ms. Tidmore was in New Orleans as one of 31 surviving Rosie the Riveters being honored during the National WWII Museum’s 2026 American Spirit Awards, a gathering that occurred as the country prepares to mark its 250th anniversary and as the number of living Americans who remember WW2 continues to shrink.

For Ms. Tidmore, the recognition is appreciated, but she is still puzzled by it. “I don’t know that we deserve all the recognition we’re getting… The majority of Americans were patriotic.”

That humility is a common thread among the women being honored. Many spent decades without public recognition for their contributions to the war effort, viewing their work not as extraordinary, but as necessary. Ms. Tidmore and fellow honoree, Elizabeth Tate never met during WWII, but together their lives show how the war pulled American women into jobs, training programs, and military service that had long been closed to them.

Ms. Tidmore built B-26 Marauder bomber wings before joining the Marines. Ms. Tate learned to read blueprints through wartime training programs before becoming a machinist producing parts for military ship building. Eight decades later, both are among the dwindling number of women who can still describe what it was like when an entire country mobilized for war.

From Bomber Wings to the Marines

Before becoming a Marine, Ms. Tidmore was one of millions of American women who entered the workforce during WWII to fill jobs left vacant by men deployed overseas.

After leaving nursing school, she followed friends to Rockford, IL, where she worked at the J. I. Case Company, a farm equipment manufacturer that had shifted to producing aircraft components for the war effort. Her job involved fitting metal gap covers over sections of the leading edge of the B-26 wings where the electrical equipment was housed, to help maintain smooth airflow over the aircraft. 

Six months later, she wanted to do more.

While passing through a bus terminal, she watched a group of Marines moving through the station and decided to enlist. “I thought they looked pretty good,” she recalled with a laugh.

She joined the Marine Corps in 1944 and trained as a motor transport operator, learning to drive and maintain military vehicles at a time few women were expected to work around engines, trucks, or mechanical equipment.

Looking back, Ms. Tidmore says the Marine Corps changed her life. “It taught me respect for other people. It taught me the chain of command.”

A Wartime Job That Built More Than Ships

For Ms. Tate, wartime work began with government training. She arrived in Washington through the National Youth Administration and Works Progress Administration programs.

There she learned to read blueprints, a skill she quickly excelled at according to responses shared to Military.com through her guardian. That skill opened the door to more advanced defense work.

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After completing her initial training, Ms. Tate was given the chance to test for machinist positions. She remembered a trainer named Julio who helped guide her during that period.

Her daily work involved large tubs of metal pieces that workers machined into bolts and nuts for ship-building. Ms. Tate believes some of the work took place at Puget Sound, though she was not certain whether part of it also occurred at Hunter’s Point.

From the beginning, Ms. Tate understood the parts she handled were for the war effort. She was proud, her guardian said, to leave home to contribute to the country while providing financial support for her parents.

The job gave Ms. Tate more than a paycheck; it gave her a purpose. Eventually she saved enough money to help buy a modest home for her parents in New Orleans.

Women entered wartime jobs for different reasons, Ms. Tate said through her guardian, but many shared a great pride in helping the country. For her, that pride remains close to the surface.

Asked how she feels about being honored alongside other Rosies at the museum event, Ms. Tate became emotional. She said it brought back the same feelings she experiences while attending Rosie events in Richmond, California: pride in knowing that she and other women had worked hard and has been part of something special.

The Real Women Behind the Poster The public image of Rosie the Riveter has become one of the most recognizable symbols of American wartime labor, but Ms. Tidmore believes the poster can sometimes overshadow the women behind it.

“I think so, yes’,” she said when asked if the image has eclipsed real women. “So many women were working during WWII… everybody was working for the war effort.”

The work took many forms. Some women built ships, others assembled aircraft. Many filled transportation, logistics, and administration jobs that kept the military functioning. Women entered professions and industries that men had traditionally dominated.

Bonnie O’Leary
WA

Adapted from by Ryan Thomas LaBee’s article in Military.com, June 8, 2026.