The publication is reproduced in full below:
HONORING TWO ROSIE THE RIVETERS IN GEORGIA'S 14TH DISTRICT
______
HON. MARJORIE TAYLOR GREENE
of georgia
in the house of representatives
Friday, September 3, 2021
Mrs. GREENE of Georgia. Madam Speaker, I rise today to honor two constituents in my district: Mary McJunkin, a Rome, Georgia native, who turned 100 years young on August 30, 2021, and Louvenia ``Lou'' Jordan, who will turn 100 on May 27, 2022. I want to celebrate these extraordinary lives and note their contributions.
First, I want to briefly highlight the great life of Mary McJunkin. Born in Rome, Georgia, on August 30, 1921, Mary McJunkin quit school to care for her younger siblings after her mother's death. Mary grew up working at a ten-cent store on Broad Street and went to the old Rome High School. During that time, and the rest of the time leading up to and during the war, everything was rationed. Ration stamps were used to buy certain things.
When Mary was just 18, she married the love of her life, Guy McJunkin. Guy and Mary were together 69 years before he passed away. Mary and Guy had just gotten married when he was drafted into the Army after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. From there, he was moved to San Pedro, California at Fort McArthur. At first, Mary wasn't going to follow him, but he called her one day and asked her to move to California. ``I remember saying to him, `I haven't ever been that far! I've been in Rome my entire life!' ''
It didn't take long before Mary changed her mind and jumped on a Greyhound bus the very next day. She was 18 years old and traveled all the way across the United States. It took five days and four nights to get there. ``When I got out to California after the long bus ride my husband, who guarded the coastline which was a target for the Japanese, had to pull guard duty that night and couldn't come and pick me up,'' said Mary.
When Mary got off the bus, she didn't have anywhere to go. Luckily, she found a woman who offered to help her, and she ended up staying at a Young Women's Christian Association (YWCA) which is essentially a hostel or recreational facility for women in need.
After that night, Guy and Mary found an apartment in Manhattan Beach, which is when Mary began her work at the El Segundo airplane factory. Mary worked third shift, so she had to take the Greyhound bus in order to go to work from Manhattan Beach to San Pedro/El Segundo, which was about an hour ride both ways. She didn't get any sleep! While at the airplane factory, Mary worked on an assembly line that manufactured parts for planes that were used during World War II. She injured her fingers working on the assembly line and received a new assignment operating a machine that pressed metal rings.
Later, Mary followed her husband to military bases in Kentucky and Oklahoma, where she worked at a grocery store and dress shop, respectively. Mary said she always had to find work because her husband only received $50 per month from the Army. When her husband shipped out to Italy in 1944, Mary returned to Rome, Georgia.
After the war, Mary's husband worked as a sales representative for Advance Glove Mill, and Mary worked in the home and raised their daughters, Janie and Nancy.
``Becoming a Rosie has given me a lot of pride in what I chose to do back during the war,'' said Mary.
Approaching this centennial benchmark recently passed by Mary, Louvenia ``Lou'' has filled her 99 years with much to celebrate and honor.
Born May 27, 1922, Lou Jordan's life began modestly on a farm in North Carolina where she and her seven siblings did chores from sun-up to sun-down. Her father passed on his mathematical skill to his children, all of whom earned scholarships to attend college. Lou selected home economics as her major because ``at the time when I was young, there were only three professions for a woman: teacher, secretary, and nurse. Take your choice.'' When Lou was in college, she had traveled home for Christmas when she learned about the bombing of Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. When she made it back on campus, all the men had been put on trains as they were drafted for the war.
Lou put her studies on hold and became a cryptographic analyst for the U.S. Army Signal Corps at Arlington Station in Arlington, Virginia when Army tests revealed that she had a technical mind perfect for codebreaking. She worked to break down and decipher decoded messages.
``It was like doing algebra all day--finding the unknown.'' Oftentimes, the messages were about where the troops were stationed or where they were being transferred. However, in one of the codes she helped crack, the group of cryptographers helped to save one small country in the Caribbean Sea.
Lou had to have top security clearance. All the paper they figured on was burned and then put on an airplane. The airplane would fly over the ocean and scatter the ashes. That is how secret her work was.
On the day the war ended, everyone was out in the streets in Arlington. A streetcar was picked up by the military personnel and moved off to the side. They said, ``This street belongs to the United States service'' and everyone began dancing in the street.
After the war, Lou married and returned to North Carolina where she worked as a bookkeeper for a local newspaper. She now lives near her daughter in Rome, Georgia, and counts her wartime service among the many ways in which she says: ``we got women out of the kitchen.''
I commend these lives of selfless service to our Nation and honor them in the U.S. House of Representatives.
____________________
SOURCE: Congressional Record Vol. 167, No. 153
The Congressional Record is a unique source of public documentation. It started in 1873, documenting nearly all the major and minor policies being discussed and debated.
House Representatives' salaries are historically higher than the median US income.
Alerts Sign-up