Dothan’s Thelma K. Faison was looking for something to do when she graduated from high school after the start of World War II. Jobs were plentiful in a country at war. After training in Fort Myers, Florida, she went to work as a riveter.
Faison became one of millions of American women helping the war effort, who collectively became known by the iconic name “Rosie the Riveter.’’
Born on the Fourth of July, the 95-year-old Faison says she can’t recall “being especially patriotic or anything, but that’s just the first thing I thought of when I got through school was to help out, whatever I could do to help win this war.”
Her job was to patch bullet holes in the airplanes that had been in battle overseas. Faison often wondered as she worked whether those who were aboard the damaged planes had survived. “Maybe it was best I didn’t know, but … I used to wonder if he made it out.”
A special thanks to the Library of Congress (https://www.loc.gov/today/cyberlc/feature_wdesc.php?rec=3350) for information about the many women of America’s “Greatest Generation” who were “Rosie the Riveter.”
Dothan’s ‘Rosie the Riveter’ recalls a time when everybody pulled together from Alabama NewsCenter on Vimeo.
