Felecite (Phyllis) LeClair Kimlin Hollis Spears,

was 105 at the time of her death in 2011 and had several names over her long life. But one of them that won’t be found on any legal documents is “Rosie.” Phyllis Spears (then Kimlin) was a “Rosie the Riveter,” one of the many millions of unsung American women who helped shape America’s World War II effort, define a nation’s can-do spirit, and set a powerful example of female strength and independence.

As National Rosie the Riveter Day approaches on March 21, Phyllis’s daughter, Nancy Roberts, 89, of Tecumseh (a “rosebud,” as Rosie descendants are called), is proud to share her mother’s story not only in her honor, but in honor of all the World War II Rosies and the paths they helped pave for women and all Americans today.

Before the war began, life was already difficult for Phyllis Kimlin. Living through the Great Depression of the 1930s in Gaastra, a small town in Iron County in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, Phyllis’s husband had abandoned her and their four young children, including Nancy. With scarce opportunities for women during that time in general and that place in particular, Phyllis kept food on the table by keeping house for a priest. Nancy’s grandfather lived with them. “I always heard the reason my grandfather lived with us during that time was to help pay the rent,” she said.

After the Second World War broke out in 1942, Phyllis heard the Willow Run Bomber Plant in Ypsilanti needed women to work. Leaving her children in the care of neighbors and relatives in the U.P., Nancy said, “My mother got on a train, came down to Ypsi. She said she got off the train, didn’t know where to go, what to do, and a man came up and said, ‘Do you need a room?’”

The kind stranger, Mr. DeBoer, was the assistant principal of Roosevelt High School, then part of the Michigan Normal School and Eastern Michigan University. He provided Phyllis a room in his home with his family. And, as Phyllis didn’t drive or own a car, other employees drove her to work every day once she began her job as a riveter on May 29, 1943, at Willow Run, the largest B-24 bomber warplane plant in the world.