Agnes Moore, a Rossmoor resident who worked at the Kaiser Shipyards during World War II. (Photo by Donna Beth Weilenman/Martinez News-Gazette)

By Donna Beth Weilenman
Martinez News-Gazette

Among those in the audience Saturday for Betty Reid Soskin’s book reading and talk was Agnes Moore, who came to California from Arkansas and worked at the Kaiser Shipyards in Richmond during World War II as one of the female workers later called “Rosie the Riveters.

But Agnes didn’t attach rivets to ships. Her job was welding.

During World War II, so many men were sent to war that essential war effort jobs were undertaken by those who remained at home – men too old to fight, youth too young to enlist and women.

A Rosie the Riveter campaign, including a depiction of a red-scarfed woman rolling up her sleeve, making a fist and saying, “We can do it!” was used to recruit women to the workforce.

Moore now lives in Rossmoor, and works alongside Reid Soskin at the Rosie the Riveter museum.

“I talk,” she said, while Reid Soskin is giving film presentations or taking visitors to see the Red Oak Victory ship.

“People come and love to hear about the work we did in the shipyard,” Moore said. Some days, she may give four separate talks to the museum’s visitors.

During World War II, Moore worked the graveyard shift, welding the ships that would get launched and towed to an outfitting dock. Those ships were launched without engines, and tug boats had to guide them to the docks, she said.

She did that work from 1942 until the close of the war in 1945.

The war effort wasn’t what drew Moore out to California, though. Instead, she became intrigued by the state while she was still a school student.

“I saw a picture in my sixth grade geography book,” she said. The picture showed someone picking an orange off a tree. “I said that’s for me.”

As soon as she could, she headed west.

After the war, she and her husband moved to Oregon, although the couple lived in Martinez for 50 years, too. Their daughter, Cheryl Buscaglia, has returned to live in Martinez.

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