‘I still have the first piece of riveting I did’

I’m afraid I sure fit the bill of “Rosie the Riveter.”

I graduated in 1942 from Cordell High School. I was an only child of a widowed mother, and her graduation gift to me was a trip to California to visit my aunt and uncle, who was a supervisor in Douglas Aircraft in Long Beach.

Since I turned 18 in June after graduation, he put me to work in the plant. There everyone went by last names, so I was tagged Winnie for my last name, Winchip, and have gone by Winnie until this day. Douglas sent us to the Goodrich Rubber Plant in Long Beach to learn to rivet. I still have the first piece of riveting I did and (have) treasured it all these years.

My mother remarried, and she and her husband, who was an electrician, moved to Oklahoma City ... so I transferred from the plant in Long Beach to the Douglas plant in Oklahoma City and worked there until they phased out after the war. I then went to business college and was a secretary in Oklahoma City and Bethany.

But I am so proud of all the skills I learned at the war plant and still use them (tools) all the time, such as the screwdriver, hammer and saw.

Submitted by Mabel “Winnie” Haley, 83, of Guthrie