Cleona Rosie the Riveter's proudest moments: working the air depot and lifetime of voting

At 101 years old, Lorraine Koons looks back on two things she's most proud of:

Her time as working at the Middletown Air Depot doing her part to help the World War II effort.

And her impeccable voting record.

Koons, who spent all but the last two years living in Cleona, graduated from Lebanon High School in 1940 and began working at the Cleona Paper Box Factory.

One sunday afternoon, listening to the radio, she heard the voice of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, announcing that the United States had been attacked by Japan.

Unable to join the service because she was taking care of her grandmother, who had raised her, Koons wanted to help in any way she could. She soon learned that the Middletown Air Depot was looking to hire women to take the place of men sent to fight the war. She went to take a four-hour preliminary test and passed.

"I wanted help my country, I wanted to do whatever I could," she said. "I didn't know what I could do. I would have liked to join the service, but I was taking care of my grandmother, and so I had to stay home and be with her. The next best thing was to work in an air depot or somewhere where I could help."

At the time, the depot had been renting out space at the PA Farm Show complex as a training center for new workers, where Koons spent three months learning what she needed to know to repair airplanes.

She explained that those technical skills came easy to her, saying that she was already familiar with a lot of the tools through her grandfather.

It was there that she worked for the next three years and three months, until a few months after the war ended. She worked in the fuselage department, installing new gas tanks, working on oil and oxygen systems and repairing any damage from enemy fire on B-17 bombers and C-47 cargo planes.

She took a bus that would pick up workers daily and worked 8-hour shifts six days a week, on a weekly rotating schedule of day shift, middle shift and night shift. Sundays and Christmas Day were the only days off.

Sundays, for Koons, were always important. She explained that her grandmother began taking her to church at six months old. She found that regular attendance was important in living a good life. While she had to stop attending her church, Hill Lutheran, due to mobility issues, she is the oldest member in both age and years of membership.

After working at the depot, Koons got a job in Harrisburg at the Treasury before she met her husband, Herbert, who she married in 1948. They built a home by hand together in Cleona where she lived until a few years ago.

After getting married, she worked at White's Food Market in Cleona for 27 years.

Koons was among the millions of women in the United States who joined production lines to aid the war effort during World War II, together embodying the "We Can Do It" tagline seen in Rosie the Riveter posters of the time.

Congressional Gold Medal

On April 10, 27 Rosies were invited to Washington DC for a ceremony awarding the Congressional Gold Medal, the highest civilian honor given by Congress, to all Rosies for their contributions during the war.

That medal was taken to the Smithsonian American National Museum where it will reside permanently.

Koons' cousin, Jeffrey Kreider, has been contacting elected officials since seeing a television segment on the ceremony, hoping to see her contributions recognized as well.

Kreider only reconnected with Koons about three years ago after spending 60 years not knowing that she was alive, but he has spent time learning about her life.

"I lost track of her for so long, and she's such a very special person," he said. "I mean, she's just good hearted, she's a nice, nice person. She is so proud of having been [a] Rosie the Riveter that when I saw that on television, I just felt that I didn't want her to be left out. I wanted her to know that she was recognized."

Kreider said that he's so far had enthusiastic conversations with representatives from the offices of both Sen. John Fetterman and U.S. Rep. Dan Meuser regarding recognition for Koons.

Around Koons' room at Lebanon Valley Home, posters and memorabilia of Rosie the Riveter decorate the walls, including one with her own face photoshopped in. She said that when she sees them, it inspires within her a sense of pride, reminding her of the work she did and helping her country.

"When I look back," she said. "that's the most important thing that I can think of in my life. It's the thing I'm proudest of in my whole life, that I could do that job and help my country."

Nowadays, Koons gets her hair done once every two weeks and works hard to keep her mind sharp by coloring and writing. Her birthday is next month, on May 18.

Most of her memorabilia from her time as a Rosie, she explained, she's donated to a Rosie the Riveter museum in California.

Perfect voting record

Second to being a Rosie, Koons is proud of the fact that she has voted in every single election that she's been able to. Voting became important to her at a young age, through her aunt who was very politically minded.

In 1997, Koons was inducted into the Pennsylvania Voters Hall of Fame.

Daniel Larlham Jr. is a reporter for the Lebanon Daily News. Reach him at DLarlham@LDNews.com or on X @djlarlham.

This article originally appeared on Lebanon Daily News: This Cleona Rosie the Riveter recalls her proudest moments in life