Please help find a real "Rosie the Riveter"

February 27, 2024 5:45 PM

There's longer article with pictures and a video here The Collings Foundation is restoring a P-47 Thunderbolt, and inside the fuselage they found a handwritten note. It's signed by either "Sue Tharp” or “Sue Thorp," who was working on the production line of Republic Aircraft in Evansville, IN in late 1944. Can anyone help find her?

The American Heritage Museum in Stow, MA, holds the amazing vehicle & artifact collections of the Collings Foundation. Their team of WWII warbirds has been grounded since an accident in 2019 when the B-17 was lost, but the other artifacts are on display in a new facility. From their web site:

At the American Heritage Museum you explore America’s conflicts, beginning with the Revolutionary War to today. You’ll discover, and interact with, our heritage through the History, the national effort developing new technologies of warfare, and the Human Impact of America’s fight to preserve the freedom we all hold dear.

The American Heritage Museum is housed in a 66,000 + square foot building located at the Collings Foundation’s headquarters in Stow, Massachusetts. The concept of the American Heritage Museum began when the Foundation was selected to receive the massive collection of tanks, armored vehicles and military artifacts from the family of Jacques M. Littlefield in 2013.

A dozen-odd years ago I saw their "Wings of History Tour" when they flew into tiny North Central Airport in Rhode Island. Climbing through the B-17 gave me a visceral (and frankly frightening) idea of what the plane must have been like during the war -- and a deeper respect for the people who built and flew these planes.

posted by wenestvedt (9 comments total)

Oh, they're looking for a Rosie the Riveter, not the Rosie the Riveter.
posted by kirkaracha at 9:27 PM on February 27 [1 favorite]

She'd have to be in her late 90's now. I hope they can find her, but I suspect they'll find only her legacy.
posted by Snowflake at 10:26 PM on February 27 [4 favorites]

There are Thorps and Tharps living in the area now. You could call around and see what people know about their grandmothers and great aunts and so on. Point them to the web page for an explanation.
posted by pracowity at 12:15 AM on February 28 [3 favorites]

Back in the early 2000s, before the museum existed, once a year, on a weekend usually around Fathers Day, Bob Collings would let people into his house and attached hanger to see his collection and take rides from aircraft flying off his private airstrip in his back yard. I went twice - once with my dad in 2006 or so, a second time with my now-spouse in 2011. That second time we took a 15-20 minute flight in an old yellow biplane. It was always stunning to see his collection, and you could tell how much love and work went into restoring the older aircraft he owned.
posted by NotMyselfRightNow at 4:34 AM on February 28 [2 favorites]

There are some great pictures of women riveting and doing similar work here. I've always preferred Norman Rockwell's take on Rosie (scroll down a bit) to the more widely-seen poster - confident, less glamorous and insouciantly hefting a hige rivet gun with one hand while holding a sandwich in the other.
posted by Fuchsoid at 6:00 AM on February 28 [2 favorites]

doing similar work here.
That link is broken.
posted by pracowity at 7:23 AM on February 28

I've written before about flying in the Collings' B-17 several times. Such a beautiful bird and such a loss when the crash happened.

I suspect that yes, Ms. Thorp/Tharp has left us, but it's still a cool piece of legacy to save. We just redid the upper half of our driveway last year. I saved a chunk of concrete by the garage (now office) that a previous resident of my house had signed. "T. Napier 1937". Researched and found out that Mr. Napier and his wife Beluah lived here at least until his death in 1945 at the age of 58. (She lived until 1982, but died out in Riverside). They're buried in Glendale. And even with that scant bit of history, I feel more of a connection. So, yes... it's a weird little thing, but definitely the sort of history to go digging for.
posted by drewbage1847 at 9:33 AM on February 28 [2 favorites]

Per the 1940 census, there was a "Sue Tharp" living in Muncie, Indiana in 1940. She was born in 1919, so about the right age to be working on an assembly line in Evansville four years later.

There was a Sue Thorpe living in Louisville, KY, relatively close to Evansville. Born 1911, so still in the age range.

No way of telling if it was either of them, but they're both plausible.
posted by Galvanic at 10:36 AM on February 28 [3 favorites]

I have fam in Evansville, I'm going to forward this, who knows.
posted by daHIFI at 12:32 PM on March 2