Valley patriot heeded Rosie the Riveter's call

Despite having held other jobs, Florence Reed Owens of Boardman admits missing the steel mill.
By REBECCA SLOAN
VINDICATOR CORRESPONDENT
FLORENCE REED OWENS IS, IN MANY ways, a typical grandma. She crochets colorful afghans, enjoys a good bingo game and loves her grandkids. But there's something that sets this 86-year-old Boardman woman apart from the rest: Reed Owens was among the Mahoning Valley's first female steel workers.
"I've always liked a challenge and liked trying something new," said Reed Owens, who speaks with frank friendliness. "When I heard the mills were hiring women, I thought, 'Why not?' It paid a lot more than being a waitress did in those days."
"Those days" were the 1940s, when "Rosie the Riveter" posters encouraged women to fill jobs vacated by American men serving in World War II.
"All the boys were leaving, and the mills were in desperate need of help," Reed Owens explained. "I got hired at the Republic Steel tube mill in Campbell in 1942 when I was 23. I was a weight stenciler, which means that when the pipe came down, I weighed it and stenciled a number on it."
The finished pipes were sent overseas for military use.
Although the work wasn't strenuous, Reed Owens said it was potentially dangerous.
"If you didn't pay attention, you could get hurt," she said. "You had to stay focused."
Republic Steel hired a few other women shortly after hiring Reed Owens. The other women did similar kinds of work and were friendly with one another, but there wasn't much time for socializing.
Women treated well
"Besides a quick lunch, you didn't leave your station, and when the work day was done, you were tired and ready to go home -- so there wasn't time for friendships," Reed Owens said. "I don't know whatever happened to those other ladies or if they're even still living."
Although female steel workers were a surprising new development, Reed Owens said male co-workers and supervisors treated them well.
"The men who were too old to go to war were still working in the mills, but they accepted us and were very nice about it," she said. "There was no harassment -- maybe occasional joking and flirting, but no harassment."
Reed Owens worked at Republic Steel for two years while her husband, Arnold Reed, was stationed in Nome, Alaska, as a staff sergeant at an Army weather station.
When 28-year-old Arnold Reed first left for his post, the couple had a 1-year-old daughter named Faye.
Arnold "didn't like being stuck up there in Alaska, but he was one of the lucky ones because he never had to fight in any battles," Reed Owens said.
While Reed Owens was working in the mill, she left young Faye in the care of grandparents.
When her husband came home from Alaska in 1944, Reed Owens quit Republic Steel after becoming pregnant.
"I found out I was pregnant, and that was it -- no more mill," she said with a laugh.
Soon the mills had discharged all female employees.
"When the war ended and the men came home, the jobs went back to the men," said Faye Kinney, Reed Owens' oldest daughter. "Then the women went back to more traditional jobs."
For Reed Owens, more traditional jobs included waitressing, bar tending and working as a clerk in a clothing store.
Missing the mill
Although she tackled these tasks with energetic enthusiasm, she admits missing the steel mill.
"I have good memories of it," she said. "I liked the work, and I liked the pay. It couldn't have been much more than a dollar an hour, but in those days that was more money than a woman could make at other jobs. And it was a good, powerful feeling to do a man's job and earn a good wage."
Bonnie DiMaiolo, Reed Owens' younger daughter, says her mother has always been a go-getter.
"She's always liked a challenge and loved life. Whatever was put in front of her, she always handled it," DiMaiolo said.
Reed Owens is casual about the challenges she faced during World War II -- challenges such as being away from her husband, living in the Westlake housing projects and trying to make ends meet.
"I didn't worry too much about it. You did what you had to do, and I never had too big of a problem," she said.
After Reed Owens' first husband died, she moved out west and worked in a Las Vegas casino where she was in charge of keno games.
After living out west for several years, Reed Owens retired at age 75. She moved back to Ohio in 2000 after the death of her second husband, Larry Owens.
She now shares a house on Mill Trace Road with her two daughters, who help care for her.
Family
But don't get the idea that Reed Owens needs anyone fussing over her. Although she's had triple bypass surgery and a hip replacement, she remains sweet and feisty, with a sharp wit, playful sense of humor and a zest for life.
"I'll turn 87 in May," she said, and then added with a laugh, "And I can't slow down or [my family will] give me hell for it."
"She wants to see 90," DiMaiolo said. "And I think she will."
Reed Owens' family is proud of her pioneering status in the Mahoning Valley steel mills.
"My grandkids say, 'Hey, you know Grandma worked in the mill?'" Reed Owens said with a smile.
She has four grandchildren and eight great-grandchildren.
Besides her daughters, she also has a son, David Reed, who lives in Arizona.