Former ‘Rosie Riveter’ celebrates 100th birthday

Awilda "Wilda" Stephens — one of the original “Rosie the Riveter” women who served in World War II — celebrated her 100th birthday at The Oaks of Granbury on Nov. 9.

Stephens, whose life could be pulled straight out of the history books, was born in Wapanucka Indian Territory before Oklahoma became a state.

As a child, she lived in Dougherty, Oklahoma before moving to Ardmore, Oklahoma. After high school, she completed two years of college, but soon found herself following a different path.

Because so many men were leaving to serve in World War II, Stephens became one of 6 million women who supported the U.S. war effort by filling jobs previously held by military men.

She began working for an aircraft factory — what is now known as Lockheed Martin — in Fort Worth, where she helped build B-24 bomber airplanes.

Stephens was known as a “Rosie” after the Rosie the Riveter campaign, which served as a catalyst for recruiting females to work in factories and shipyards during World War II.

"When they realized how small she is, how short, they realized that she could fit into the aircraft wing when some of the other women couldn't, so they asked her to go inside so the person outside with a rivet gun would shoot the rivet, but she would be on the inside with equipment that would set the rivet, so that was what she did,” said Judy Stephens, Awilda’s daughter-in-law.

Awilda later was in charge of the tools that were needed to build each aircraft.

She married her husband, Roy, in 1943 and together, they had four children: Don, Janice, Dale and Tommy, their late son who passed away three years ago.

After they raised their four children, Awilda attended college at UTA in Arlington and graduated with her teaching certificate. She taught at Richland Hills Junior High School for approximately 18 years.

Once she retired, Awilda and Roy enjoyed traveling around the United States and to various countries.

“Every Thanksgiving, we would have to have Thanksgiving dinner on the Sunday before Thanksgiving because for the four-day weekend, they were gone,” Judy said. “When my father-in-law retired, we said ‘Oh good, we can schedule a party for your retirement.’ He said, ‘Well you'll have to have it without me because we're leaving in the morning and we're gonna be gone six months.’”

“We went to Europe and then to Hawaii and Mexico,” Awilda said. “He had enough time off, I had enough time off and on the last day of school, we were ready to take off,” she said.

Awilda and Roy were members of Birdville Baptist Church in Haltom City for more than 50 years, and they participated in several mission trips. They were married until his death in 1996. They have six grandchildren and several great-grandchildren.

“She raised not only four children, but she raised just about every one of the grandchildren in some way or another. She was a heavy influence in their lives,” Judy said.

Her grandchild, Wilda Kleewein, who resides in Alaska, is named after Awilda, and she said she considers it a great honor.

“I get to carry her name on, which is really neat,” Kleewein said. “Growing up with my name was difficult but I'm pretty proud of it now.”

Awilda has lived at The Oaks of Granbury since 2019.

“This is a good place if you’re going to live somewhere besides your own home,” she said.

When asked how it feels to be 100, Awilda replied, “That’s a mystery to me.”

“She has been a very special mother-in-law,” Judy added. “She's very sweet. She's feisty. Oh boy, she's feisty.”

The “feisty” adjective was proven when Awilda was told by one of The Oaks of Granbury staff that she looked beautiful and her reply was, “as usual.”

“It's wonderful my children got to come up,” Awilda added. “I have a good husband and wonderful children and grandchildren. It's been many years that we lived in Fort Worth and we would go down to the lake (in Granbury) and every time we'd pass it, we'd look down and we'd say, ‘We're gonna be living there one of these days,’ but here I am without him.”