Richmond’s Rosie the Riveter World War II/ Homefront National Historical Park regained its status this month as the Guinness world record holder for having the most people gathered in one place dressed as Rosie the Riveter – thanks in part to several Benicia residents who attended this year’s Rosie Rally and Festival at the park on Aug. 13.

The California group regained the title after it had been snatched away by an equally enthusiastic bunch in Ipsilanti, Mich. last year, where the WWII Willow Run Bomber Plant is currently undergoing restoration. The two groups started a kind of friendly rivalry when Richmond first stole the Guinness record away from Ipsilanti in 2014. At last count, the California group had registered 2,225 qualifying individuals from this year’s event, breaking the record of 2,096 set by the Michigan group last year.

At least a handful of Benicians were part of the festival and rally last Saturday. Benician Randy Wright, an event volunteer, attended with his family, including his great-aunt Willa Mae Thomas, who was a “Rosie” during the war. Together with his wife Linda and their daughter Karis, who was in town on a break from college at Humboldt, the family contributed three entries to the Rosie World Record ensemble.

At least a dozen or so current residents of Benicia have relatives who were part of the “Rosie revolution,” when women flocked to work at their husbands’ jobs while the men were off fighting the war.

“I worked at (Kaiser Shipyard) Richmond Yard #2,” Marianne Finn told the Herald Friday. Finn was close friends with another area “Rosie,” Louise Wilson-Harris, whose daughter Robin Dutrow taught at Robert Semple Elementary school for 21 years before retiring in June of this year. Finn’s own daughter, Teresa Finn, currently teaches English at Benicia High School.

“At Yard #1, they broke the record for building a ship, in 30 days,” Finn recalls. She worked at the shipyard for three years, “at 39 cents an hour,” until her husband returned home from the war.

“We cracked the glass ceiling,” Finn recalls proudly. “We wore men’s clothes – steel toed shoes, over-sized flannel shirts and hard hats.” Women were eager to go to work, she said, since it was the end of the great Depression and jobs were so hard to come by. “We women were only 17-18 years old, stepping into men’s jobs. I had just started at U.C. Berkeley. I think Robin’s had just graduated.

“It was the end of the Depression. A lot of people dropped out of school to go to work, to have some spending cash.”

Finn recalls being greatly impressed with the man who built the Richmond shipyard.

“Kaiser was a genius. He built that shipyard, and he knew how to do it.” Finn joined the work force straight out of high school, but many of the women she encountered there were older, with children to care for. “He offered daily maritime childcare for 50 cents a day. For 50 cents a week, I had Kaiser medical coverage – he invented that too.”

The Aug. 13 rally was a collaboration between the Rosie the Riveter/WWII Home Front National Historical Park and the Rosie the Riveter Trust, along with support from the City of Richmond, according to Marsha Mather-Thrift, executive director of the Rosie the Riveter Trust.

“The Rally took place at the Craneway Pavilion, then we led a rally parade down the Bay Trail to the Home Front Festival at the Rosie the Riveter Memorial.

“The Home Front Festival was a great part of this. It was our National Parks Service Centennial National Park and Trust event for the year. We had a terrific line-up of food trucks, entertainers, booths, kids’ activities, the Potomac yacht, the East Bay Regional Parks Mobile Visitor Center and more.”

The history of the memorial park dates back to 1979, according to Thrift, when then-councilmember Donna Powers and local historian Donna Graves got the memorial statue placed and established the Rosie the Riveter Trust. Former congressman George Miller was instrumental in getting the national park established. Richmond’s current mayor, Tom Butt, has gotten numerous sites in Richmond registered as national historic sites, Thrift adds. “Richmond has more historic sites than any other city in the country.”

The Rosie the Riveter National Historical Park was formally established in 2000. The Visitor Center opened in 2012. Admission to the park, visitors center and museum is free. The park is located at 1414 Harbour Way, Richmond and is open daily from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. For more information visit the website at nps.gov/rori or call 510-232-5050.