On the Home Front
Real-life ‘Rosie the Riveters’ and others from the
Masonic Homes reflect on life during World War II
While millions of American men fought on distant battlefields during World
War II, their wives, sisters, and mothers back home also did what they could
to support the war effort. Many of these women became known as “Rosie the
Riveter” for their work on factory assembly lines that produced munitions,
airplanes, and other war supplies.
Filling the positions left vacant by men in the military, these women were immortalized through the Rosie the Riveter
icon in popular music, on posters, and in film. Some of these
real-life Rosies are right here in the Masonic Homes.
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women of World War II.
One of them is Lil Cinke, of the Masonic Home at Covina. In
1942, she was working at a Los Angeles-area restaurant when
she came across a help-wanted ad for workers at the Lockheed
airplane plant in Burbank.
“I thought that sounded better than waiting tables and would
do more for the war,” she says.
Cinke got the job and was soon wearing overalls and toting
a toolbox. Working the swing shift from 4 p.m. to midnight,
she riveted the bellies of P-51 fighter jets alongside men who
welcomed her and her fellow Rosies as “one of the gang.”
After two years at the Lockheed factory, Cinke resigned due to
illness. But at a dance after the war, she met her future husband
– who, as fate would have it, served as a crew chief on P-51 jets.
Today, nearly 69 years later, Cinke is proud of her role as a riveter
and her contribution to the war. Continued on next page
