MORRIS — Some students in north Jefferson County got a taste of World War II this week.
On Friday, Drs. John and Frances Carter, founders of the American Rosie the Riveter Association (ARRA), served as a live history lesson to a crowd at Mortimer Jordan High School.
On hand were students from two history classes and a holocaust studies class. Mortimer Jordan media specialist Laurie Dunlap organized the event.
The Carters, who live in Birmingham, dressed in WWII clothing: John in his original paratrooper uniform, and Frances representing the famous Rosie the Riveter painting by J. Howard Miller that helped stir women into action during the war.
The couple taught about the importance of “Rosies,” or women who walked out of their traditional roles during the war to fill jobs formerly done by men.
Frances Carter was indeed a riveter during the war, having left her job as a teacher in Mississippi in order to help build B-29 aircraft at Betchell McCombs Parsons Aircraft Modification Center in Birmingham, a company today called Pemco Aeroplex, Inc.
However, Carter said that riveting was only one of the jobs that women filled as able-bodied men went to war. Women also worked as welders, crane operators, machinists, farmers and many other jobs.
They worked in steel mills, lumber mills, textile mills and canneries. They filled roles in all levels of government, from local to federal.
“We were ordinary women doing extraordinary jobs in an extraordinary crisis,” Carter told the crowd.
Some women were unable to hold down full-time jobs, but they did what they could as volunteers, such as growing “victory gardens” and collecting “critical materials” for recycling, such as tin cans, waste fat, old shovels, old tires, razor blades, tin foil and nylon hose.
Carter said 12,000 razor blades could be made into one 2,000-pound bomb. One old shovel would make four hand grenades. And recycled ladies’ nylon hose were used to make parachutes.
Carter said that her generation is likely responsible for the current trend of recycling and salvaging.
After the war, the Carters went on to become professors at Samford University, from where they retired.
Mortimer Jordan’s legendary former principal, Jimmie Trotter, was one of their former students at Samford, then called Howard University. Trotter was on hand Friday for the Carters’ presentation.
Mortimer Jordan principal Barbara Snider said having people like the Carters visit her students is a priceless experience for them.
Snider said she can especially relate to the importance of World War II-era history, as her mother was in the U.S. Navy during World War II.
“It brings it home to the kids that it was for real. You can teach all day long, but it’s different to actually see people who were there and part of it,” Snider said. “When they’re gone, these first-person stories will be gone.”
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Drs. Frances and John Carter dance Friday to a World War II song about Rosie the Riveter. The couple, who started the American Rosie the Riveter Association in 1998, spoke to students at Mortimer Jordan High School. Melanie Patterson
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