Community Corner

Bucks 'Rosie' To Receive Congressional Medal; Made COVID-19 Masks

Meet a 95-year-old Levittown woman who campaigned for decades to get the Congressional Gold Medal for women who built machines during WWII.

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This iconography of "Rosie the Riveter" celebrates women who built planes, ships, and bombs on U.S. production lines during the second world war. Levittown resident Mae Krier was one such woman, and she pushed hard for national recognition for the Rosies.
This iconography of "Rosie the Riveter" celebrates women who built planes, ships, and bombs on U.S. production lines during the second world war. Levittown resident Mae Krier was one such woman, and she pushed hard for national recognition for the Rosies. (MPI/Stringer / Getty Images )

LEVITTOWN, PA — A 95-year-old Levittown woman and former worker at the Boeing Aircraft Co. in 1943 made masks over the past year to aid community members during the pandemic.

Mae Krier sewed the bandanna and mask that will be worn by a "Rosie the Rocketeer" mannequin which Boeing will send in a rocket to the International Space Station, according to a profile in the Philadelphia Inquirer.

Krier has long been an advocate for recognition of women's work on production lines during World War II. Last fall, following her decades of work, the federal government decided to award the Rosies with the Congressional Gold Medal, a civilian honor to recognize between 12 and 18 million women who contributed to the war efforts.

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Krier is expected to receive the medal in 2022.

Read the full story of her impressive life and accomplishments in the Philadelphia Inquirer: A Bucks County Rosie the Riveter who fought the Nazis and COVID-19 will have iconic bandanna, mask shot into space

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