PINOLE — Feeling she wasn’t giving enough to the war effort after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, Jeanne Gibson — at the time only 18 years old — traded her nursing school life in Minnesota for a welding job in the shipyards of Seattle.
Now 98, Pinole resident Gibson will be one of about 70 American World War II heroes honored in France on the 80th anniversary of D-Day, when Allied forces stormed the beaches of Normandy, eventually leading to the liberation of France and the end of the war.
“During World War II, everyone was on the same page. We were working to get it over with so we could get our boys back home,” Gibson said in an interview. “Everybody was just doing what they could. It was great and we were all working together. It was a good time as well as being a bad time because of the war.”
The millions of women like Gibson who worked in American shipyards and factories during World War II — many of them stepping into the industrial workforce for the first time while the men who had formerly worked such jobs were deployed overseas — became known as “Rosie the Riveters,” after the song of the same name. The 1942 hit, popularized by several artists, could have been about Gibson herself: “All the day long, whether rain or shine / She’s a part of the assembly line / She’s making history, working for victory / Rosie, the riveter.”
Whether or not there was a “real” Rosie on which the song was based is much-debated, but the most iconic image of Rosie the Riveter became the wartime poster by Pittsburgh artist J. Howard Miller of a woman with the sleeve of her industrial blue uniform rolled up, flexing her bicep as she proclaims, “We can do it!”
Beginning May 31, Gibson and other honorees will be flown out to the headquarters of American Airlines in Fort Worth, Texas, where they’ll receive a send-off parade before boarding a charter flight to Paris. The trip will culminate in a ceremony on June 6 at the Normandy American Cemetery in Colleville-sur-Mer, France, where more than 9,000 American WWII soldiers are buried. The trip is made possible through a partnership between American Airlines and the nonprofit Old Glory Honor Flight.
Gibson, one of only two Rosie the Riveters participating in the event, and a recent recipient of a Congressional Medal of Honor, said she’s excited for the adventure. It’s far from the first in her lifetime though; besides her World War II welding work, she’s also earned a Ph.D. from UC Berkeley, as well as a pilot license, and traveled abroad over the decades since.
Before moving to Seattle, Washington, to weld warships, Gibson was studying to become a nurse in Minneapolis, having heard the position was in demand during the war. She remembers listening to the radio when news broke about the attack on Pearl Harbor and wanting to be of service. But after two quarters studying nursing, she said she realized the role wasn’t for her.
She and a school friend, Esther Harri, landed roles as welders at the Todd Pacific Shipyards in Seattle, working the cold evening shift in their safety helmets, leather overalls, jeans and long underwear purchased with their first checks.
Gibson later took on another role making manifests and hatch lists for the Army Transportation Corps’ Embarkation Center in Juneau. Whether welding or filling out ledgers, Gibson said she loved and took great pride in the work.
“Without World War II and what happened, I would be an entirely different person,” Gibson said. “It gave me courage to go ahead and I can do it. And it gave me some backbone.”
After the war, Gibson moved to San Francisco and then Berkeley. She went on to earn a bachelor’s in psychology, and a master’s and Ph.D. in educational psychology from UC Berkeley, where she also taught multiple sections of educational psychology 101. While writing her dissertation, she also taught science to local schoolchildren and would end up dedicating 30 years of her life to teaching kindergarten through sixth grade.
She and Harri earned their pilot licenses and joined a local chapter of the Ninety-Nines, a group for women pilots started by famed flyer Amelia Earhart and 98 others. They traveled the world, socialized with an assortment of friends, and picked up hobbies like weaving and baking.
After attending a trip to Pearl Harbor in Hawaii in December of 2023, Gibson was inspired to begin telling her story to hundreds of visitors nearly every Friday at the Rosie the Riveter National Historical Park in Richmond, which honors the contributions of women during World War II.
The work is what’s keeping her going, Gibson said, noting she especially enjoys encouraging young girls to fight for what they deserve, including fair pay.
“I say don’t limit yourself to what you think you can do,” Gibson said. “You can do it and don’t let them pay you less.”
