"Rosie The Riveter" Speaks To Women In Aviation About Work During Wartime

BELLEVILLE (WWJ) - She's an original "Rosie the Riveter" who was back at the plant where it all started.

Marjorie Walters worked at the Willow Run Bomber Plant during World War II, where she and other women, helped to build bombers and supplies for war.

Newsradio 950's Stephanie Davis was on hand as the "Rosie" spoke at the Yankee Air Museum in Belleville.

Walters, 91, is still in pretty good health, she took questions from members of the Women in Aviation local chapter during a small gathering.

"We were constantly putting panels on ... and doing other things," she said.

Walters came from Wisconsin to work in the plant to install rivets on B-24 wings.

"I worked after they closed the plant (as well)," Walters said in reply to a question regarding the end of the war. "Because my driver was working and I helped pickup and cleanup."

Walters, whose story is part of the Veterans History Project in the Library of Congress, met her husband at the Willow Run Bomber plant before he enlisted in the army.

"I have quite a few letters from him that I read every once in a while."

Years later Walters would get to ride on a B-24 bomber, the kind of plane she helped to build.

"I loved it," she said with a smile.

Rosie the Riveter is a term coined during WWII to describe the women who left their homes to work in the factories during wartime to help produce munitions and supplies for war. Rosie the Riveter is really an iconic image of women working during wartime in the U.S.