Naomi Parker Fraley; another ‘real’ Rosie the Riveter passes
HMC Ret sends us the sad news that Naomi Parker Fraley has passed at the age of 96. She is believed by some historians to be the original “Rosie the Riveter” of World War II motivational posters. That’s her in the picture above during those years when she worked in a Navy machine shop. The original caption read “Pretty Naomi Parker looks like she might catch her nose in the turret lathe she is operating”;
After the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, the 20-year-old Naomi and her 18-year-old sister, Ada, went to work at the Naval Air Station in Alameda. They were assigned to the machine shop, where their duties included drilling, patching airplane wings and, fittingly, riveting.
It was there that the Acme photographer captured Naomi Parker, her hair tied in a bandanna for safety, at her lathe. She clipped the photo from the newspaper and kept it for decades.
After the war, she worked as a waitress at the Doll House, a restaurant in Palm Springs, Calif., popular with Hollywood stars. She married and had a family.
The article discusses all of the “real” Rosie the Riveters.
“I didn’t want fame or fortune,” Mrs. Fraley told People magazine in 2016, when her connection to Rosie first became public. “But I did want my own identity.”
Category: We Remember
Fair winds and following seas, Ms. Fraley.
Many cases of “Rosie” Stolen Valor. Riveting.
Interesting story and an even more interesting woman.
That’s not a turret lathe she’s running in that photo though. I guess journos had a hard time getting things right even in the ’40s.
The book “Freedom’s Forge” by Arther L. Herman goes into manufacturing on the home front during WWII.
It is an amazing story of how despite governmental interference and ignorance, the US got the job done. (Unions were a roadblock as well.)
From things such as people making parts in their living room, to the races to assemble Victory Ships, the book goes into it all – including women in the workplace.
A worthwhile read in my opinion.
As to the quote “unions were a roadblock as well” that shouldn’t surprise anyone, as during that time especially, most larger unions were very much run by communists… not exactly the people who would have Americas best interests at heart.
BTW, thanks for the book suggestion just added it to my must read list.
Gitar, thanks for the reccomedation.
You’re both welcome.
I had the pleasure of interviewing Herman on a radio show one day and thought he was very knowledgeable and could communicate to people very well.
I had read “Freedom’s Forge” before the interview (not just a few pages but the whole book) and began to look into what Herman wrote rather than what I had always “learned.”
It’s not so much that he is a contrarian, but that he makes the case the the US produced so much during WWII because of innovation and work within the private sector rather than with the government’s “help.”
Two things I will always remember:
The first thing was that the US started cranking our Victory Ships after the US started paying on e per ship basis rather than on a time basis. There was a profit incentive to make more ships as well as to have more ships for the war effort.
Secondly he talks about a cooling shroud for a machine gun. The government gave exacting standards of place, number of holes and the pattern of the holes. During an inspection a worker called the inspector over and said “we can make these shrouds cool better and make them faster with a different hole pattern. They proved it too.
It is American innovation and hard work – not the government – that made the “arsenal of democracy.”
He has another book called “How the Scots Invented the Modern World” which is a worthwhile read as well.
Hope ya’ll enjoy them as much as I did.
On the other hand gubmint did achieve the Manhattan Project and the proximity fuze.
RIP
My mother worked at Convair building B-24s. She always spoke of her job with pride. I miss her.
She was a pretty woman back in the day. Rest In Peace Ma’am.
My Grandma was a Rosie. She and her sisters built antiaircraft gun directors and other fire control components. As luck would have it, Grandpa was an antiaircraft gunner who worked with the very same systems she put together. Funny how that works out sometimes.
It’s sad to see Rosie the Riveter get co-opted by modern misandrists who piss on everything those women stood for.
Mom was one too. First woman welder/burner in the Jax Fla shipyards building Liberty Ships. She was one tough woman.
RIP Rosie, May God Bless you and your family
There sure were a lot of pretty young ladies of my parent’s generation. Naomi Parker Fraley is one proof that one does not have to show a lot of skin to be attractive.
Thank you for your service, Ma’am. I hope your life was a pleasant one.
There’s a “Rosie” in my church, she just had her 96th birthday. Sarah worked as a welder during WWII. Sweetest lady you’ll ever meet.
Last Friday I went to the funeral of my great-Aunt. She served as a Marine during WWII, back when they were WMs. She too was 96. The info I have said she served as a Motor Transport Marine (driver). The local Marine Corps League detachment provided the honors at her funeral. They did a good job and I learned that there was a funeral variant of the Marine Corps Hymn performed at a slower cadence. It made it seem much more like a Hymn as opposed to the marching cadence variant I was so familiar with.
Rest in Peace.
Vaya con Dios, Mrs. Fraley.
RIP
We couldn’t have won the war without our Rosie’s and Bren Gun Girls
No pussey marcher here either. Mrs. Fraley was another one of America’s heroes. We owe it all to those of her generation. Thanks Rosie!
Often overlooked, they contributed greatly to the war effort. RIP, Sister.
My Great Aunt was a riveter working on Liberty and cargo ships in the yard at Providence, RI. Met her husband there.
I found a story on this out of San Fran with a picture of Naomi and her sister.