When Betty Hayes of Montrose was 18 years old, the world was at war and she was holding a rivet gun.

Hayes was newly married, and her husband had shipped overseas with the Army Medical Corps. Like many young women in the early 1940s, she answered her country’s call and went to work at the North American aviation plant in Kansas City, Kansas, just across the river from where she grew up in Kansas City, Missouri.

“It was a time when the guys were all in service and there was equipment to be built,” she said. “We women had to step up and do that.”

Hayes joined the thousands of women who became known as Rosie the Riveters, a now-iconic symbol of female resilience and patriotism during World War II. She and her co-workers helped build B-25 bombers that became a vital part of the war effort.

DANGERS & DEDICATION

Hayes underwent six weeks of training before joining the assembly line, where she used a rivet gun to attach fuselages to planes. The plant was staffed almost entirely by women, with a few men who did not qualify for military service.

“Most of us were married to men that were overseas,” she said, “and a few had children.”

The work was demanding and repetitive, but it came with moments of pride.

“Sometimes when you saw a plane fly off or go off the line, you were very proud you’d been a part of it,” Hayes said.

Hayes at a special recognition dinner in New Orleans, 2024

 The job came with strict security. Workers were searched entering and leaving the facility to prevent theft of expensive tools. And there were real dangers—women had to keep their hair tied up because a loose strand caught in a drill could cause serious injury. 

“That’s why the bandana,” Hayes explained, revealing the practical origin of one of Rosie the Riveter’s most recognizable features.

Hayes estimated her team produced about 10 planes a day, an astonishing pace that reflected the urgency of wartime production and the skills these women rapidly developed. She said she worked there “probably about a year and a half,” and in her memory, it was “until the war was over” and her husband came home.

LIFE AFTER THE WAR

His homecoming, though joyful, brought its own challenges. Hayes believes he had what is now recognized as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Like many families at the time, she said, they did their best and moved forward.

 Hayes became pregnant with her first son and her life shifted dramatically. After working full time and earning her own paycheck, she transitioned to homemaking and motherhood.

Did she miss her job at the plant?

“No, I didn’t miss it,” she said without hesitation. “I had a newborn baby and it was great. I had a new home to take care of, and my husband was working, so my life just changed.” 

Her proudest accomplishment wasn’t wartime work.

“[It was] having my children,” she said.

BACK TO PLANES

Hayes raised two sons and a daughter. When the kids reached school age and college costs loomed, she returned to aviation, this time in the credit department at Trans World Airlines (TWA).

In 1968, her life shifted again.

“I lost both of my husbands and they were both World War II veterans,” she said. 

Her first husband died that year, leaving her to raise three children, the youngest just 12 years old. 

Betty Hayes, left and daughter Sherry Neill pose with a tribute display honoring Hayes' wartime service at the Gary Sinise Foundation event. 

 Today, at 101, Hayes lives in Montrose, Colorado with her daughter. Her sons visit a couple of times a year from Washington and Missouri. She attends Bible study every Wednesday, goes to church regularly and still volunteers one day a week at the Warriors Resource Center, a local organization supporting veterans. 

“It’s God’s will that I’ve lived this long,” she said. “He’s given me a wonderful family. I go to a wonderful church and I have good friends in the church, and I just keep plugging along every day.”

A LIFE THAT MATTERS

Last year, Hayes’ service to her country was honored in a way she never expected. 

The Gary Sinise Foundation, which is dedicated to honoring the nation’s heroes, invited her on an all-expenses-paid trip to New Orleans, where she got to tour The National WWII Museum.

“They picked me up here, and my daughter, and flew us to New Orleans,” Hayes said. 

“[They] wined and dined us for three days. It was a wonderful experience.” 

She recalled about 18 women who had worked in war plants around the country. Though she did not know them before the trip, she enjoyed sharing stories with them. 

In 2017, Hayes returned to her hometown of Kansas City, Missouri, for what she suspects may have been her last visit. 

“Oh yes, it was changed,” she said. “Changed so much because it had been years since I was there.” 

Across more than a century, Hayes has lived through a world war, the loss of two husbands and the everyday work of raising three children. Through it all, she kept doing what needed to be done.

From riveting bomber fuselages to working at TWA to volunteering at a veteran’s center at 101, she kept moving forward.

“I’ve had a great life,” Hayes said. “God has been so good to me.”