May 11, 200719 yr This is from our most-often-worthless local newspaper. There is also a photo gallery of the ceremony which is interesting in that the "Rosies" were then led, pushed, etc out to the museum pieces of the Republic, and Grumman birds that they worked on. Rosie the Riveters honored for service during war BY SOPHIA CHANG sophia.chang@newsday.com May 10, 2007, 2:24 PM EDT Cora Baiko still remembers the jolt of the riveting gun from a long-ago era. "Back then, I was only in my 20s" and had the stamina to work eight-hour shifts drilling rivets into the Grumman Corporation's airplanes, said Baiko, who is now 86 and living in Massapequa. She cocked her arms and mimed the drilling motion, demonstrating how wielding the gun would shake her entire body. Baiko was one of about 62 real-life Rosie the Riveters who worked at the Grumman and Republic airplane companies and who came to the Air Power Museum Thursday for a ceremony in their honor. They brought to life the iconic Rosie, a tough and dark-eyed beauty memorialized as a model of female patriotism during World War II. Rosie was the symbol of all the women who took over factory jobs as men left for the warfront. "She was loyal, efficient and patriotic," said New York state assemblyman David McDonough (R-Levittown). Several of the Rosies, turned out in sensible heels and carefully applied lipstick, still remembered the pride they took in a job well done and a country served. "It was doing something that had to be done," said Hilda Willis of Holbrook, who riveted cockpits at Republic until the end of the war. Find article here.
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