Rosie the Riveter Memorial Dedication

Excerpted from the San Francisco Examiner, October 15, 2000

SIMPLY RIVETING - Memorial honors Rosies of WWII Marina Bay sculpture in Richmond in a tribute to 18 million women.

RICHMOND
Many of them walk with canes now but once they wielded a mean welding rod as they built the ships to fight the war. On Saturday, about 200 of the women who fought the war at home came back to the former site of the Richmond Shipyards, where they had served as welders, machinists, mechanics, draftswomen, pipe fitters, electricians, boilermakers and scores of other trade jobs during World War II.

The occasion was the dedication of the Rosie the Riveter Memorial, a steel sculpture designed to look like a ship's hull under construction. The memorial on Richmond's Marina Bay - soon to be part of a National Historical Park that will include 13 other sites here that commemorate the home front effort - is the nation's only tribute to the estimated 18 million women who worked in the defense industry, from shipyards and aircraft factories to lumber mills and steel mills.

"This is a very unusual memorial," said Donna Graves, the memorial's project director. "It commemorates women." About 2,000 residents and relatives joined in the three-hour ceremony under brilliant sunny skies and a giant U.S. flag that flew from a boom crane.

There were tributes from politicians and testimonials from some of the Rosies. Stands sold T-shirts and postage stamps depicting the famed World War II poster of a woman showing off her muscled biceps with the war cry "We Can Do It!"

A Big Band played songs from the '40s. Then came the ribbon-cutting, and the parade of Rosies who walked through the hull, along a 441-foot walkway meant to represent the length of a Liberty ship.

ROSIE THE RIVETER MEMORIAL EVENTS

11 am: Herbie Mims Orchestra performs
12 noon: Flyover of vintage airplanes
12:30 pm: Unveiling of Rosie the Riveter Memorial
2 pm: Shuttle to the Red Oak Victory, the last remaining ship built in the Kaiser Shipyards.

Chip Johnson's column appears in The Chronicle on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays. He can be reached at (510) 433-5984, by e-mail at chjohnson@sfchronicle.com, or try writing The Chronicle at 483 Ninth

St., Suite 100, Oakland,CA 94607.

The Rosie the Riveter Trust would like to thank the San Francisco Chronicle and the San Francisco Examiner for the use of the edited materials posted on this page and thanks to Ellen Gailing Photography for the Photos! .