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ELKINS -- Five new members will be inducted into the Randolph County Rosie the Riveter Honor Roll on Saturday afternoon during a ceremony at Halliehurst Mansion on the campus of Davis & Elkins College.
City of Elkins Mayor Jerry Marco will induct the newest Rosies at the celebration, which will begin at 1:30 p.m. and is being sponsored by Our Town Inc., Lavender Fields Assisted Living, and D&E College.
"This is our third event to celebrate Rosie the Riveters and we have found five new Rosies through their families," Our Town volunteer Bobbi Trimboli told The Inter-Mountain Tuesday. "We will be honoring those women with their families or their dedicated proxies who will pick up certificates that were given to us by Sen. Shelly Moore Capito."
Trimboli said the five new members will be added to a Rosie the Riveter display that contains pictures and biographies of all the other women who have been inducted. After Saturday's event, a total of 29 Rosies will be in the Honor Roll.
"All the women we have discovered have been from Randolph County, or had a connection to Randolph County during their lifetime," Trimboli said. "We seem to be doing what we set out to do when we started this, and that was to bring attention to these women and what they did during World War II."
The five new Rosies being inducted include Ruth Linger Bell, Wanda Laverne Pickens Bickel, Hazel Virginia Phillips Ramsey, Loretta M. Smith-Keller and Margie Alice Cavalier Thompson.
"A Rosie is any woman that was paid by the government to support the war effort during World War II," Trimboli said. "That doesn't mean they had to rivet airplanes, although four of this year's inductees did direct manual labor during that time. Ruth Linger Bell actually assisted Eleanor Roosevelt in securing homes for people with the Homestead Project."
The Randolph County Senior Center Dulcimer Group will perform gathering music at the event, while Girl Scout Troop 10142 will present the colors and lead the Pledge of Allegiance.
Becky Ashburn, who is a professional storyteller, will read for those in attendance, and Sandy Tice will close out the ceremony with a bagpipe performance of "Amazing Grace."
Refreshments will be provided by the Davis & Elkins College Catering Service, while the Mossy Merchant is handling the decorations for the event. For more information on the celebration, call 304-636-0415.