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Phares
Editor's Note: The following is part of a series of articles about local women who served as "Rosie the Riveters" during World War II.
ELKINS -- Leona M. Phares wanted to be remembered for what she had accomplished during World War II, so before she passed away in 2007, she shared a story with her daughter Linda Shomo and made her keep a promise to not forget.
In early December in 1941, Phares was living in Akron, Ohio, in a one-bedroom apartment with her husband and two young sons. It was a typical evening when she became alarmed from hearing the paperboy outside the apartment yelling "extra, extra" so late in the evening.
Normally Phares did not receive the paper, but on this day she ran across the street to purchase one. The news was about Pearl Harbor being bombed and instantly, like many, she was both devastated and scared. She knew her husband, Dempsey, would be leaving for war because of this. He enlisted, not because he had to, but because he felt he needed to do his part to fight for America and keep his family safe.
Dempsey and many other young men enlisted to fight in World War II after hearing President Franklin D. Roosevelt's famous "A Call for Sacrifice" words on April 28, 1942. Dempsey was sent to Jacksonville, Florida to train for 17 weeks. Later, Leona and her two sons, Gary and Dick, took a train to Florida to be with Dempsey.
As Dempsey's training was ending, Leona prepared to head back to Akron. She wasn't home very long when her husband was deployed to Washington, D.C. to be shipped out. Leona began looking for a job, and after the first one she landed didn't work out, she got a job at Goodyear Aircraft and was assigned to use a drill and bucking iron.
This job required Leona to drill and buck exact holes onto B-28s, P-37s and other bombers. She said workers would prepare the frame of the B-29 bombers in order to attach the sheet metal.
From there they would drill holes in the frame and put the sheet metal in place and drill holes through it. The workers would then rivet the sheet metal to the frame sections. She also wired many of the bombers during her job.
Leona was always reminding the other Rosie the Riveters at the plant that they needed to do an excellent job, because if an inspector missed something, it could lead to one of their family members or someone they knew being on a plane that crashed.
Once the war was over, her husband arrived back in the United States and the family moved to West Virginia. They bought a farm on Kings Run Road in Elkins, which Leona's family still owns.
Linda Shomo said Leona "was a wonderful mother, neighbor and friend to the many that knew her. She was an inspiration to everyone and she was one of many Rosie the Riveters that supported the United States during the darkest times. She was a true American hero."
Shomo, who is the president of the Emma Scott Garden Club, has kept her promise. She is not only keeping her mother's Rosie the Riveter legacy alive, but has publicly recognized more than 46 other Rosies.
This year's local Rosie the Riveters project was sponsored by Our Town Inc., which also gathered the biographical information about the Rosies.