Original Rosie Visits Veterans Display

History Comes to Life in Harrison

“Rosie the Riveter” Irene Pudelek, pictured here with Maye Tessner-Rood at the Veteran's Display at the Clare County Fair.

“Rosie the Riveter” Irene Pudelek, pictured here, began working on the wings of the B17 airplane in 1943 at the DeSoto Chrysler Plant.

(Photo provided rene Pudelek)

Posted Thursday, August 8, 2019 12:00 am

A more complete description of this special Rosie the Riveter was published in the Spring 2014 issue of Region 1A Retiree News-Chapter 15 Report which was submitted by Regina Davis. It states:

“Recently, I was informed that we at Local 15 have our own Rosie the Riveter in our membership, Irene Petras Pudelek. I would like to now share her story. Irene was 18 years old when she was hired at the DeSoto Chrysler Plant (Michigan & Wyoming in Detroit, Michigan) in September 1943. She and her partner worked on the wings of the B17 airplanes. Irene was a riveter and her partner a bucker (the person holding the sections together as the other shoots rivets). Irene’s take-home pay for 48 hours was $45.56.

On April 29,1944, Irene married her husband, Albert F. Pudelek. She continued to work at the Chrysler Plant until July 44. Later that fall, she joined her husband at Hobbs Army Air Force Base in New Mexico. Irene then became a general mechanic’s helper. She worked in a hangar on the base repairing airplanes. She was ready for this job because of the experience she had from the Detroit Chrysler Plant.

Irene worked on the Hobbs Air Force Base till April 1945, at which time her husband was transferred. She then returned to Michigan where she started a family and continued to be a loving mother. Her husband retired from Fisher Body Fleetwood after 43 years.

I feel honored to know such a remarkable woman. I would like to thank all of those wonderful “Rosie the Riveters” for their support of our country and making their mark on our lives. Because of them, I was later able to become another working woman in the auto industry. – submitted by Regina Davis”

by Dianne Alward-Biery

HARRISON – It’s well known that history is important, not only for understanding events and people who have gone before, but also because it affords humanity the opportunity to learn from its successes and to avoid its mistakes of the past.

History does have another aspect, one which rarely presents itself. Such was the moment which happened during the 2019 Clare County Fair when history came alive in the person of Irene Pudelek, an original Rosie the Riveter, as she visited the Veterans Display where a special section this year honored Rosie the Riveter. The memorabilia there was provided by local Rosie maven Maye Tessner-Rood.

Pudelek was 18 years old when she began her home front war work in 1943, and she is now in her mid-90s. When asked if Pudelek was doing all right, Tessner-Rood couldn’t help but laugh.

“Are you kidding?” she said. “When Bob Walsh (who had accompanied the local Rosie group down to Eastern Michigan University for a Guinness record attempt) asked her ‘Hey, are your legs still that good looking?’ she said, ‘Yeah, they just don’t work as well.’

“And the robot came in and proposed to her and she threw him a kiss – all that stuff. She was doing great, loving every minute of it.”

Tessner-Rood said that local military historian Joe Bradley also was overjoyed by the impromptu visit, and made it known all around the fairgrounds that this “diva of history” was onsite and bringing them in to meet Pudelek.

She agreed that such an opportunity for people to “rub elbows with history” is truly a big deal.

Tessner-Rood noted that one of the three Rosie roses which had been donated earlier this year by the National Rosie Association to the Veterans Freedom Park represented Pudelek.

“We re-dug all that beebalm out at the front entrance,” she said. “We moved all three Rosie rosebushes there, and now the National Rosie sign is there. So, now we’re going to be on the national registry – there’s another milestone.”