Marietta 'Rosie the Riveter' Helped Build B-29s in World War II

One of the women who helped build B-29 bombers at Marietta's Bell Aircraft Corp. during World War II died this week.

Dorothy Mae Arp Simonds, 90, of Cleveland, TN, passed away on Monday, May 23, 2016.

During World War II, women entered the workforce in unprecedented numbers as male enlistment left holes in the industrial labor force. Between 1940 and 1945, according to History.com, the number of women in the U.S. workforce rose from 27 percent to nearly 37 percent, and by 1945 nearly one out of every four married women worked outside the home.

“Rosie the Riveter” was star of a government campaign aimed at recruiting female workers for the munitions industry.

Simonds' obituary in The Chattanoogan said she retired from J. C. Penney’s at age 75, and then worked another five years as a food and clothing volunteer for two community churches.

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