The National WWII Museum in New Orleans honored more than 30 surviving “Rosie the Riveters” as recipients of its 2026 American Spirit Award during the museum’s annual Dr. Hal Baumgarten D-Day Commemoration, the museum said.
The museum said this year’s awardees included the group of wartime workers, acclaimed composer John Williams and former New Orleans Saints player and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis advocate Steve Gleason. The award recognizes individuals and organizations that “exemplify the outstanding qualities of the American spirit and inspire these values in others,” the museum said.
The museum said more than 150,000 troops participated in the Allied invasion of Nazi-occupied France on June 6, 1944, and that women on the home front were essential to the war effort. The museum said labor shortages opened opportunities for women to learn skills such as welding, riveting, aircraft assembly and munitions manufacturing that helped supply Allied forces.
Local reporting by NOLA.com described several honorees. Delphine Klaput, 101, worked at the Glenn L. Martin Aircraft factory in Baltimore and was entrusted with guarding aircraft blueprints, the outlet reported. Francesca Masters, 104, worked on B-24 Liberator bombers at Ford’s Willow Run plant, earned $1 an hour and sent much of her paycheck home, NOLA.com reported. Lisa Brown, daughter of Rosie the Riveter Virginia Rusch, told NOLA.com the women “truly didn’t think they had done anything special.” NOLA.com reported Klaput reached for the hands of fellow honorees and repeated the wartime slogan, “We can do it.”
Jon Ross Myers is the executive editor and publisher of the Mississippi News Network, Mississippi's largest digital only media company. He can be reached at editor@tippahnews.com
