Rosie the Riveter entered the American imagination in 1942 in a song by Redd Evans and John Jacob Loeb which celebrated a tireless factory worker and her riveting gun.* Artists quickly picked up the image for patriotic posters, the best known being J. Howard Miller’s “We Can Do It” poster for Westinghouse Electric.

But Rosie was only one version of the women who stepped up to do non-traditional jobs in World War II. The women who worked at Kelly Field in San Antonio were known locally as “Kelly Katies.” During the course of the war, Kelly Airfield became the world’s largest air supply depot; the 10,000 plus Katies who worked there made up more than forty percent of the workforce.** Among other jobs, they overhauled aircraft engines, taxied aircraft, and  repaired damaged planes.

When the Korean War began in 1950, Katies returned to Kelly Field to overhaul B-29 bombers and other aircraft that were taken out of storage. You could argue that the Air Force took the Katies out of storage, too.

*This was news to me. This clip is from a 1943 recording of the song made by the Four Vagabonds.

**The first woman to work at Kelly, Estella Davis, arrived during the First World War, in December, 1917. (There’s got to be a story there.) She retired in September, 1945, at the age of 68, but only after she was sure she wasn’t needed to support the war effort.

*Takes a deep breath*

And now for my big news: The Dragon from Chicago is one of five finalists for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize in Biography. Needless to say, I am thrilled. (Thrilled!!!!) The winner will be announced on April 25, at a ceremony that kicks off the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books at the campus of University of Southern California. (I’ll be on a panel at the festival and signing books.) Cross your fingers for me, and drop by to say hi if you’re in the L.A. area.

Quite frankly, I already feel like a winner.

***

Come back on Monday for three questions and an answer with philosopher and historian Lydia Moland.