Latest WWII profile on our own`Rosie the Riveter'

April 28, 2015

The latest World War II profile by our Legacy Washington team focuses on a 92-year-old Olympia resident who is one of the last of about 15,000 women who worked in Boeing’s Seattle factories during the war. Regina Sawina Tollfeldt worked eight hours a day, seven days a week during the peak of the war, wriggling through the wing jigs for the B-17s leaving Plant No. 2 at a rate of a dozen a day. Tollfeldt’s job was to drill the holes for the rivets that fastened the bomber’s aluminum skin to its ribs. Her name is pronounced “Reg-eena Sah-Veena Toll-felt,” with a strong “g” and “v” and a silent “d.” “Sawina” in Poland is pronounced “Sah-Veena,” she explains. You can view her online profile here. Tollfeldt’s story, written by John C. Hughes, is part of “Washington Remembers,” a project of Legacy Washington to salute World War II veterans as the 70th anniversary of war’s end approaches. The Washington Remembers webpage can be viewed here. Secretary of State Kim Wyman, who is the niece of a decorated World War II Marine, says the profile on Tollfeldt is a reminder of the crucial role women played on the homefront of the war effort. “Regina and thousands of other Washington women went to work in factories to help with the war effort,” Wyman said. “They may have been nicknamed ‘Rosie the Riveter,’ but to me they should all be called heroines for stepping up and helping build the planes and other equipment that helped us win the war.”

Regina Tollfeldt talks with Assistant Secretary of State Mark Neary at a recent reception. (Photo courtesy of Laura Mott)

Assistant Secretary of State Mark Neary chatted with Tollfeldt at a recent reception in Wyman office honoring Hughes’ 50-year (and counting) career as a journalist and historian. “It was so interesting to talk with Regina and learn more about her role in the war. What an amazing woman and story.”

An unidentified woman works on a plane at a Boeing plant during World War II. (Photo courtesy of Legacy Washington)

After World War II ended, Tollfeldt started with the Division of Vocational Rehabilitation in Olympia as a secretary and ended her career in Aberdeen 32 years later as one of the division’s most respected counselors. Regina and her husband, Roy, moved to Olympia in 1980. Roy died in 1999. Regina is an accomplished painter and for several years was an active member of Women in Black, the international group that abhors violence and militarism. Legacy Washington is getting ready to launch a profile next week on Olympia’s George Narozonick, who hit the beaches on D-Day, June 6, 1944.
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