Dorothy Mae Fischer Uzarski, the grandmother of ARRA chapter member Angie Morthland. Fischer Uzarski took in service men’s laundry during WWII. She is also pictured below.
Angie Morthland (left) with Donna Watkins (center), and Linda Rogers (right).
THE ORIGINAL GIRL POWER Rosie the Riveter Lives on in Northern Michigan
By Geri Dietz The brightly colored WWII poster is an icon of another time: the tenacious, cando American gal pushing up her sleeves and doing her part to save the world from Fascism. Take that, Adolph! But, the history of Rosie the Riveter is a living history as well, and some of it is being lived right here in northern Michigan. To wit, Northern Express tracked down a regional Rosie who is still going strong at 96. Donna Crandall Watkins, of Carp Lake, was a junior at Petoskey High School when World War ll began, and she and her fellow students rallied to do their part for the war effort, including plane spotting and metal
collection. For her part, Watkins collected quarters from students during study hall to buy war bonds. (When a stamp book was full, it was worth $18.75, or $25.00 upon maturity.) She also played a role in a significant episode in Petoskey’s wartime history: collecting milkweed to use as buoyant filler for life vests. Before Japan invaded China in 1937, a cotton-like fiber pod, kapok, sourced from Asian rainforests, was used for flotation. But, with that supply cut off, Navy tests determined that milkweed was a comparable substitute, and the plant was designated a wartime strategic material. Remarkably, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA)
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discovered that the highest producing area for wild milkweed in the entire country was a 12-county area in northwest Michigan, with Petoskey at the epicenter. Also important, Petoskey had the roads, the rail lines, and the shipping capabilities. The Preston Feather Lumber Company facility was appropriated by the government to be used as the processing center, making it the world’s first factory of its kind. “We kids picked a lot of milkweed,” Watkins remembers, “and my father took it to the collection point in town.” (Even after the program expanded to include other states, it is estimated that the people of Emmet County contributed over 60 percent of the milkweed used.)
Watkins developed her Rosie the Riveter mechanical know-how when she joined Leonard Murray’s after-school shop class, formed to help girls fill some of the occupations formerly held by men. In that class, she built a small screw jack that she still owns. “My jack started out as a piece of metal. I had to do every step as it went along.” She continues, “It has rarely been used for anything. I just keep it and recall it was once just a piece of metal, and I made it.” In class, Watkins also learned how to operate and troubleshoot small machines, and her new mechanical skills landed her a position at Lansing’s Nash Kelvinator, previously a refrigerator plant, now retooled to produce war materiel. (Her father was
