A "Rosie" story from one of our chapter members!

My Mother, Frances Katheryn Jenkins, was the third child born to Hattie Augusta Prettyman and Charles Theodore Jenkins. She was born at home on December 9, 1910 in Spokane, Washington. She had an older sister, Pearl, an older brother, Harold, and a younger sister, Eleanor. Life for Mother’s family wasn’t easy and even though her father worked hard to provide for all of them there was hardly enough to feed and clothe the family let alone money to buy the extras. Mother didn’t finish high school, but she never told me the reason why.

My father, George William MacGregor, was born on March 13, 1911 in Spokane, Washington. They met at a dance in Spokane. Daddy had a small band and played the drums. He often told me he fell in love with mother almost immediately because she had the most beautiful flaming red hair and had gorgeous legs. They were married in Spokane on June 4, 1931.

I am their only child and was born on March 19, 1932 in Spokane at the Deaconess Hospital.

Because of the Depression, money was still not easy to come by and Daddy worked hard to make ends meet. He was a meat cutter at a meat packing plant in Spokane until we moved to Davenport, Washington, a small town about 35 miles west of Spokane. He worked in the meat department of a grocery store there until the summer of 1941 when a fire burned down all the buildings on the main street of town. We moved back to Spokane, and Daddy worked in the meat department of a very large grocery store on the corner of Main and Washington Streets in downtown Spokane. Mother remained at home taking care of the house and me.

That fateful December day in 1941, war was declared after the surprise attack by the Japanese on Pearl Harbor. Mother told me she read in the newspaper a few days later that they were looking for women to work in the defense plants so the young men could go to war. She said there was a telephone number to call, and even though she had never worked outside the home before she called and asked how she might help.

Mother took a Civil Service test, and it was determined that she was mechanically inclined. She went to work at Galena, just to the west of Spokane. I never knew the actual name of the company, only the location. Galena is now Fairchild Air Force Base. Mother was an airplane mechanic, and she repaired airplane parts. She worked three different shifts, and I remember that even though sometimes she wasn’t home at dinner time we still had very delicious meals. She prepared the meals ahead of time and put them into the refrigerator for Daddy to heat up.

Mother must have been very efficient because she quickly received a promotion. She became a tester of the parts and worked straight days, no longer having to work the graveyard or swing shifts. Mother told me she had to test each airplane part to make sure it was in proper working condition, and if so, she had to sign her name to a document signifying that such was the case. It was quite a responsibility, and she took her work very seriously. Mother was very proud of the job she was doing, and I was very proud of her, too. I told all my classmates and my fourth grade teacher about Mother and her defense job.

A few months after Mother started to work, my father quit his job and also went to work in a defense plant. He worked at the Kaiser Aluminum Company in Mead, just a few miles north of Spokane. He worked three different shifts, but one of my parents was always there when I came home from school.

Mother never told me how she felt about the war in so many words but I do remember the solemn faces she and Daddy had after listening to the news or reading the newspapers. Being so young I really didn’t understand what war was.

My life went on the same way as it always had except for a few changes. We did have meatless Tuesday dinners, macaroni and cheese or creamed eggs on toast, for example. Sugar was rationed so we didn’t have as many desserts as we had in the past. Leather shoes were also rationed, and Mother used most of her shoe-stamps to buy new shoes for me as I wore mine out so fast. I can remember that she couldn’t get nylon hosiery so she used a really ugly colored make-up on her legs and used an eyebrow pencil to draw a seam line on the back of them to replace the unattainable hosiery. Daddy couldn’t get cigarettes very often so he rolled his own, or when he was able to purchase them he could only get a foul smelling cigarette called Wings. He had a sticker on the windshield of his car which was a classification for how much gasoline he could purchase each week. If I remember correctly, the sticker had a large C on it. I am sure other things were rationed but I can’t remember what they were.

Daddy had two younger brothers, Archie and William, who were both in the U.S. Navy and were aboard ships in the Pacific Theatre. Archie’s ship was in the South Pacific and William’s was in the North Pacific. I know that Uncle William was in the battle of Okinawa.

Mother has a nephew, Russell Whitmore, who was an airplane gunner in the Atlantic Theatre. He was killed, along with the entire crew, when their plane was shot down over the Adriatic Sea in October, 1944.

Because both my parents worked in defense plants they were able to purchase a new home in 1943 located in the Northwest part of Spokane. Only defense plant workers qualified to buy these new homes. All three of us were very excited to move into the new house because it was the first brand new home they had ever owned, and Mother had her first electric range to cook on.

I remember Mother telling me one funny story about working at Galena. She said that one day some men came through the plant and handed each worker a can of gray paint and a paintbrush. They were instructed to paint everything that could be painted so the plant would look all shiny and clean when the inspectors came to inspect. Mother said that the inspectors walked through the building, neither looking to the left nor to the right, but just talking and laughing among themselves. She told me everyone who was working there burst out laughing after the inspectors left the building, and what a total waste of everyone’s time having to do all that painting for nothing.

Mother worked at Galena until shortly before the war was over. She quit in the summer of 1945 shortly after V-E Day. She said that she felt that she needed to be home then as I was going to start high school in the fall.

I personally feel that Mother became a changed woman after having worked outside the home during the war. She had more confidence in herself and her decisions. Mother grew as a human being, and she became an equal partner with Daddy in their marriage. She did go back to work as a grocery clerk after I graduated from high school.

I am honored to submit my mother’s story to the Rosie the Riveter/World War II Home Front National Historical Park for inclusion in their permanent records as I have always been very proud of her, and for the effort she made in helping the United States win World War II.

Mother passed away on September 17, 2004 in Spokane, Washington, at the age of 93+ years.

Submitted by: Mrs. Betty Jean MacGregor Geist