The Groove Thang Band plays a diverse mix of non-stop dance cover music. Photo courtesy of the Groove Thang Band

SACRAMENTO, CA (MPG) - This May marks the 81st anniversary of Norman Rockwell's painting of Rosie the Riveter, featured on the cover of a 1943 issue of the Saturday Evening Post. It remains the most well-known wartime image of Rosie the Riveter. Yet today, when people hear “Rosie the Riveter,” Rockwell’s painting isn’t the one that comes to mind.

It is ironic that Rosie the Riveter is not often associated with a California girl. Also, it is a little-known fact that the Rosie the Riveter World War II Home Front National Historical Park is located in Richmond, California, near San Francisco. The park preserves and interprets the legacy of the United States home front during World War II, including the Kaiser Richmond Shipyards and the Victory ship SS Red Oak Victory. The construction of 747 ships during the war here is a feat not equaled anywhere else in the world, before or since.

Those Rosie the Riveters who worked in their overalls in the Richmond shipyards still liked to get all dressed up on Friday night to take a ferry to San Francisco. Being dressed meant high heels, a dress, gloves, and a hat.

Sacramento Elks Lodge No. 6 is hosting a themed ‘Rosie the Riveter’ dinner dance on Friday, March 1, 2024, and those 1940 “Rosies” would not believe how things have changed.

To honor our local and national women’s accomplishments, Elks 6 is kicking off the month of March with a great World War II-themed dinner celebration for National Women’s History Month starting at 5:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. with a no-host cocktail hour on March 1, 2024.

The $45 per person dinner at 6:30 p.m. is being prepared by the Barone family, who have been doing Sunday breakfasts, Wednesday night dinners, and many outstanding special dinners at Elks 6 for over ten years. This WW II-themed dinner will feature meatloaf. Cathy Barone said, “I think many Rosie the Riveters made meatloaf for dinner after working in the factories all day!”  

The Elks 6’s dinner will also have mashed potatoes, green beans, salad, dinner rolls, coffee/tea, water, and chocolate cake for dessert. Vegetarian lasagna will be provided per request. The JFK Wrestling Team will be bussing tables, and they will appreciate your tips to support their activities. Tip jars will be on the tables.

John Stellmach, an Elks 6 member working with the JFK wrestlers, said, “We did a car wash at the Greenhaven Pocket Farmers Market to raise money to buy head protectors that cost $40 for each team member.” Julian Sarille, coach of junior Cougars, said, “We really appreciate all the support Yvonne York and Vic Cima with the Greenhaven Pocket Farmers Market at the Elks give the Cougar wrestlers. We are looking forward to the Rosie the Riveter dinner.”

Julian Sarille, coach of Junior Cougars, is looking forward to being with some of his female wrestlers at Elks 6’s Rosie the Riveter dinner. Photo courtesy of JFK wrestling team

Rosies all over the world became famous during WWII. While our men were being drafted and sent overseas after the bombing of Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, the US homeland and financial economy still needed to be maintained.

Yvonne York, who is co-hosting the Elks 6 Rosie the Riveter dinner/dance along with Gina Skinner, said, “To do this, our government realized we had an untapped resource: our very own homemakers — grandmothers, mothers, wives, daughters, sisters! While men were normally considered the financial breadwinners for the family, it was the women who were the family’s backbone, providing the day-to-day structure that supported the family emotionally, enforced family values, and basically, held it all together.”

So the government put their propaganda machine to work, and that meant putting their women to work. If women could run the family, they obviously had assets and skills that could keep this country going while their loved ones — fathers, husbands, and brothers — were off on foreign soil putting themselves in harm’s way, defending our freedom and supporting our democracy.

Gina Skinner, co-hosting with Yvonne on the Rosie the Riveter event, said, “During WWII, our women were not only put to work in traditional jobs such as educators, nurses, and office assistants, but they were also taught job skills normally held by men (mechanical, electrical, etc.) and put to work. Thus, Rosie the Riveter was born.”

Tickets are on sale now. Contact Sacramento Elks Lodge No. 6 at 916-422-6666 or visit the lodge to purchase your tickets at: 6446 Riverside Blvd., Sacramento, CA 95831. For more information, contact Yvonne York at [email protected] or Gina Skinner at [email protected].