Original ‘Rosie the Riveter’ World War II Defense Worker Phyllis Gould Dead at 99

Phyllis Gould, an original “Rosie the Riveter,” has died at the age of 99. Gould, who was a welder, was one of the first six women recruited to work in defense plants by the U.S. government, which would later go on to recruit more than six million women to replace men who had been deployed overseas. But Gould was later recognized for her tireless work to bring attention and commendation from Congress and the White House to the women who were rarely acknowledged for their wartime efforts. “Rosie the Riveter” is depicted in the popular poster of a woman in a polka-dot bandana flexing her muscular arm. Her sister Marian Sousa told the San Francisco Chronicle that she wanted “Mission accomplished” written on her gravestone. The mother of five became an interior decorator after the war, and was married and divorced twice. “I think she did it all,” Sousa said, calling her “a kind of like a hippie, you know, where the wind blows.”