Rosalind P. Walter, 95, First ‘Rosie the Riveter’ and a PBS Funder, Dies

A daughter of privilege who worked on an assembly line during World War II, she became a principal benefactor of public television, her name intoned on a host of programs.

Rosalind P. Walter grew up in a wealthy and genteel Long Island home. Yet when the United States entered World War II, she chose to join millions of other women in the home-front crusade to arm the troops with munitions, warships and aircraft.

She worked the night shift driving rivets into the metal bodies of Corsair fighter planes at a plant in Connecticut — a job that had almost always been reserved for men. A newspaper column about her inspired a morale-boosting 1942 song that turned her into the legendary Rosie the Riveter, the archetype of the hard-working women in overalls and bandanna-wrapped hair who kept the military factories humming.

To read the full article in the New York Times, click here.