Monday, August 8, 2005

Duty, independence part of war effort

By CHRISTINE GIRARDIN | News-Journal Staff Writer

DELTONA — Head wrapped in a red bandanna, the woman shown flexing her arm in those iconic 1940s posters of Rosie the Riveter could just as easily have depicted Laura Lavery.

Now 81, Lavery was one of the millions of women who seized opportunities previously unavailable to women when the United States entered World War II.

She later went on to live a happy, married life with children and a home in Deltona, but her face still shines just a little when she talks about those days on the swing shift in 1944 and 1945. Not even the end of the war on Aug. 15, 1945, known as VJ Day, put a damper on the experience, although it meant the end of her financial independence.

“It was so thrilling, yet we were all out of jobs,” said Lavery, who was laid off three days after the war ended when the plant shut its doors.

It´s estimated that 6 million women took industrial jobs during WWII, some filling slots left open by the men who went to fight, and others taking new positions created by the burgeoning demand for war hardware, according to the Rosie the Riveter Homefront National Historic Park in Richmond, Calif.

Women flocked to Washington, D.C., to coastal cities with shipyards and Midwestern towns with munitions plants to help in the war effort, said Margaret Vining, curator of the Division of Military History and Diplomacy at the Smithsonian Museum in Washington, D.C.

“They did almost everything that men did,” said Vining, who has spent 23 years collecting women´s stories of wartime work.

Lavery´s story is similar to those of millions of other women. When the government and private industries came knocking on their doors, the women recognized their opportunity for competitive wages and independence. Vining said one of the women she interviewed was shocked to learn that someone wanted to teach her to be a tack welder.

“The little woman in South Carolina had no idea she could do anything, but they came to her and asked, and by God, she could,” said Vining.

For Lavery, the work was as much a patriotic duty as a chance to earn top wages, and she kept her job at the Pratt and Whitney Aircraft plant in East Hartford, Conn., through the end of the war. Pay stubs she´s saved show she earned $47.53 a week, taking home $27.44 after taxes, for a job running heavy machinery used to polish, grind and hone aircraft pistons.

“I thought it was easy work,” said Lavery, “except I didn´t like the ID grinder ´cause I was afraid I´d cut my hands off with the big stones.”

Lavery survived unscathed, and with her earnings bought war bonds that kept her and her new husband afloat for several months after he returned from duty in Europe

They are days she´ll never forget.

“I thought I was rich,” she said with a laugh.

After years of working in Dudley, Mass., Lavery moved with her children and husband, Donald, to Deltona in 1967, primarily to escape cold, daunting winters. They were wearing on Donald Lavery, who worked as a truck driver. Although Laura Lavery did work for eight years in Volusia County at an egg farm, she spent most of her time here as a housewife and dedicated VFW member.

Laura Lavery remains deeply patriotic to this day, convinced that no matter the circumstances, women will continue to play significant roles in war, at home or abroad -- even if it means being shipped to places like Iraq and Afghanistan.

“I hate to see them on the front lines, especially when they´re gonna get killed, but we had the WAVs and WACs, too,” said Lavery, referring to women´s units formed in WWII. “It´s necessary.”

Did you know?

In 1942, bandleader Kay Kyser recorded a song called Rosie the Riveter - about a fictitious woman working on an assembly line during World War II.

Soon after, a female riveter at Ford´s Willow Run Aircraft Factory in Ypsilanti, Mich., was picked to star in government films promoting the war effort. Her name was Rose Will Monroe.

Artist J. Howard Miller created the image most associated with Rosie the Riveter - an attractive, rosy-cheeked woman dressed in work clothes. It was commissioned by the U.S. government to be used as a recruiting poster in 1943.

Compiled by News Researcher Karen Duffy. SOURCES: www.rosietheriveter.org, Encarta, www.ford.com

Special Project: THE FLORIDA QUEST Laptop Lauren and the Trackers are the main characters in the Florida Quest, a 4-week, multi-media project involving thousands of students in Volusia and Flagler counties. In this quest they discover Homefront and Heritage!