Buddie Curnutte learned how to use a drill and a riveter in 1942. She was 19 years old when she went to work at Curtiss-Wright, building airplanes for nearly three years during World War II.
"It was pretty hard," she said. "The women just didn't do that."
Curnutte is one of many surviving West Virginia Rosie the Riveters who are being honored at a Charleston ceremony, "Celebrating West Virginia's Rosies," next week.
Rosies were the women who went to work in the factories when the men went off to war.
"It is past time that we are honoring these women who helped us win the war," said Delegate Barbara Evans Fleischauer, D-Monongalia, the chairwoman for the event.
"Although we justly gave medals to the men who risked their lives, we haven't done all that we should to honor and recognize the sacrifices of the women who worked in the war," Fleischauer said. "So that's why we're here today."
State Sen. Sue Cline's mother was a Rosie.
"These women are so brave, and they had so much courage to do that on their own." said Cline, R-Wyoming. "We just need to honor them and do this before they're all gone."
Fleischauer said she is proud that the Rosie event is a bipartisan effort.
"The Rosies have a wonderful message of unity that we need now, more than ever," Fleischauer said. "Their slogan was 'We pull better if we pull together.' We need to hear that in West Virginia, they need to hear that in Washington, D.C."
The event is in partnership with Thanks! Plain and Simple, a Rosie the Riveter awareness program.
"People do not know that they even exist," Cline said. "We need to get that out there and get the story told."
Thanks! Plain and Simple creates educational materials, like documentary films and interviews with Rosie the Riveters, and is led by Anne Montague, a Huntington native whose mother was a riveter.
The project is in its eighth year.
"We need these women to be involved in the community, and the community involved in them," Montague said.
There have been hundreds of Rosie the Riveters discovered in West Virginia, thanks to the project.
Next week's event will feature a program and reception. There will be a panel discussion featuring Rosies and a presentation by Katherine Antolini, a professor at West Virginia Wesleyan College.
The event will be held from 6-8 p.m. May 25 at the Woman's Club of Charleston, 1600 Virginia Street E. The event is free and open to the public.
Reach Kayla Asbury at kayla.asbury@wvgazettemail.com, 304-348-5100 or follow @kasbury_ on Twitter.