101st Birthday Party
Former Rosie the Riveter honored
Submitted photos Our Town Inc. members, standing from left, Hilda McWilliams, Brenda Cantley and Bobbi Trimboli recently visited with former Rosie the Riveter Juanita Morgan during her 101st birthday celebration on Dailey.
Juanita Morgan was presented with a dozen red roses in honor of her 101st birthday and her contributions as a Rosie the Riveter.
Submitted photos Our Town Inc. members, standing from left, Hilda McWilliams, Brenda Cantley and Bobbi Trimboli recently visited with former Rosie the Riveter Juanita Morgan during her 101st birthday celebration on Dailey.
Juanita Morgan was presented with a dozen red roses in honor of her 101st birthday and her contributions as a Rosie the Riveter.
Trending
DAILEY -- Randolph County resident Juanita Morgan, a former Rosie the Riveter, recently celebrated her 101st birthday at a family member's home in Dailey.
The special occasion was hosted by her family and was attended by three volunteers from Our Town Inc., Bobbi Trimboli, Hilda McWilliams and Brenda Cantley. The three members from Our Town dressed in full Rosie attire to help celebrate the special occasion.
"We had a wonderful time visiting Juanita and her family in Dailey," Trimboli told The Inter-Mountain. "Juanita is just a precious person and we had a lot of fun spending time with her. She talked a little bit about what she did during World War II, which was very interesting. Our entire group left the party smiling, because we all enjoyed visiting with Juanita and celebrating her birthday."
Morgan, who currently resides at Mountain Memories Assisted Living and Retirement Center, worked at the Glenn L. Martin Aircraft Factory in Baltimore, Maryland during WWII. Morgan worked alongside her sister and future sister-in-law at the facility, where she was a riveter on B-29 airplanes.
The B-29 was a four-engined propeller-driven heavy bomber that was designed for high-altitude strategic bombing. B-29s are the only aircrafts to ever drop nuclear weapons in combat, dropping the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
At the age of 17, Morgan lived with 10 young women at St. Joseph's Hospital in Buckhannon, where she assisted an understaffed group of nurses. She left Buckhannon, however, and journeyed to Baltimore, which was the furthest she had ever been from home. Morgan recalled that the plant she worked at in Baltimore was "so large you could get lost in the place."
During the war she married Edgar Morgan while he was on leave from the service. Soon after the couple's marriage, Edgar was quickly called back to duty before they could even have a honeymoon.
Edgar was later wounded in the Battle of the Rhine, and after the war the Morgans returned to West Virginia. They settled in Dailey, where they raised their two sons, Gary and Mark. Both sons attended the 101st birthday party with their wives and Morgan's five grandchildren and three great grandchildren.
Our Town will be recognizing 14 Rosie the Riveters from Randolph County, and their families, during a special event on Aug. 10 at the Randolph County Community Arts Center. The public is invited to attend.