This month we’ve received many special donations, including a welder’s mask used at Higgins Industries by welder Edna Marie Bougon Rushing. The mask was donated by her daughter Ina Rae Whitlow during a visit to the Museum. Edna is on the right in the center photo and far left in the photo on the right. Edna Bougon Rushing was one of roughly 25,000 employed by Higgins Industries in the New Orleans area. Thank you to Mrs. Whitlow and to all of our artifact donors for helping us tell the story of American experience in WWII!
Seventy two years ago, on December 23, 1943, the Christmas issue of The Higgins Worker featured a Santa fattened by a kapok life jacket. Santa is seen here visiting with workers at the Higgins Industries St. Charles Avenue plant, one of eight facilities in which over 20,000 were employed by Higgins.
Gift in Memory of Arnold Schaefer, 2012.359.001
See more from our Worker Wednesday series devoted to war production employee publications, in particular those of Higgins Industries.
For the month of March, Women’s History Month, the blog series, Worker Wednesday, devoted to war production employee publications, in particular those of Higgins Industries, the Eureka and Higgins Worker, will focus on women workers. Higgins Industries employed over 20,000 in plants across the New Orleans area. Among these employees were thousands of women. Higgins notably hired women and minority workers for skilled and supervisory positions and built vocational programs to instruct these workers in skilled tasks.
In the March 30, 1945 issue of the Higgins Worker, winners of the “Miss Carbon” contest were featured. Higgins crowned a “Miss Carbon, Day” and “Miss Carbon, Night”, one from each shift. The winners of this personality contest were selected via monetary vote. Fellow workers contributed $1 per vote to the Red Cross, raising a total of $1045.15. Frances Moreau was “Miss Carbon, Night” and Hannah Slayton was “Miss Carbon, Day.” Their “King Carbon” was WWII veteran D. Dahmes.
Join us at the Museum on March 28th for a special Women’s History Month event “Beyond Rosie: Women’s Roles on the American Home Front.” See here for more details.
For the month of March, Women’s History Month, the blog series, Worker Wednesday, devoted to war production employee and their publications, in particular those of Higgins Industries, the Eureka and Higgins Worker, will focus on women workers.
This week’s Worker Wednesday deviates from Higgins Industries to spotlight a worker from Delta Shipyards, another New Orleans production facility which employed thousands of women workers.
Rose Rita Samona completed 204 hours of training at the National Defense School on Frenchmen St. in New Orleans. She was trained in straight-line free hand burning, free hand circles, angles and machine burning. Samona, 22, was welcomed into the International Brotherhood of Boiler Makers, Iron Ship Builders and Helpers of America. From May 1943 to January 1946 she worked as a burner for Delta Shipyards, cutting and burning holes in sheets of steel for the production of Liberty ships at the rate of $1.20 per day. Burners often qualified for extra money because of the dangers involved in the job. And indeed in November 1945 Samona had a minor injury when steel fell while she was working, burning her leg. She received the E-award and Ships for Victory medal for excellence in war production, given for outstanding job performance.
Join us at the Museum on March 28th for a special Women’s History Month event “Beyond Rosie: Women’s Roles on the American Home Front.” See here for more details.
For the month of March, Women’s History Month, the blog series, Worker Wednesday, devoted to war production employee publications, in particular those of Higgins Industries, the Eureka and Higgins Worker, will focus on women workers. Higgins Industries employed over 20,000 in plants across the New Orleans area. Among these employees were thousands of women. Higgins notably hired women and minority workers for skilled and supervisory positions and built vocational programs to instruct these workers in skilled tasks. One of these women was Industrial Nurse Mary Theresa Haik pictured below in the March 16, 1945 issue of the Higgins Worker.
Gift in Memory of Arnold Schaefer, 2012.359.003
Join us at the Museum on March 28th for a special Women’s History Month event “Beyond Rosie: Women’s Roles on the American Home Front.” See here for more details.
For the month of March, Women’s History Month, the blog series, Worker Wednesday, devoted to war production employee publications, in particular those of Higgins Industries, the Eureka and Higgins Worker, will focus on women workers. Higgins Industries employed over 20,000 in plants across the New Orleans area. Among these employees were thousands of women. Higgins notably hired women and minority workers for skilled and supervisory positions and built vocational programs to instruct these workers in skilled tasks.
The issue March 3, 1945 issue of the Higgins Worker featured women in several columns. One piece focused on women workers who were actually leaving Higgins to enter the service. Oris Huet and Catherine Manfee who had both worked in the Payroll Department were departing Higgins in March 1945 (Oris after nearly five years!) to join the WAVES. (Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service), the women’s division of the US Navy.
Gift in Memory of Arnold Schaefer, 2012.359.003
Join us at the Museum on March 28th for a special Women’s History Month event “Beyond Rosie: Women’s Roles on the American Home Front.” See here for more details.
The Higgins Industries newsletter, The Higgins Worker, profiled in the Worker Wednesday series, begs for a Tuesday post in honor of this newsletter item about the religious holiday referred to as, among others, “Little Christmas,” “Epiphany,” “King’s Day,” and “Twelfth Night.” In New Orleans, January 6th signals the start of the Carnival season, culminating on Mardi Gras Day or “Fat Tuesday.” King’s Day is marked by the eating of King Cake, a tradition that was honored on January 6, 1945, in the Higgins Little Red School House in Ourtown, the settlement established for workers at Higgins Industries. To read more about Ourtown, see the previous post.
In addition to stories about production and factory life, The Higgins Worker also profiled and memorialized former Higgins workers killed in action. The issue from 20 October 1944, reported on the death of Anthony Sconza, who, prior to entering the service, had been a shipfitter at Higgins’ Industrial Canal plant.
Sconza’s service and sacrifice are featured in our upcoming exhibit in Campaigns of Courage: Road to Berlin. Sconza’s family donated the casket name plate from his casket, when his remains were returned home to New Orleans.
Seventy years ago this week, on 11 October 1944, Vice Presidential candidate Harry S. Truman visited Higgins Industries. Truman’s running mate, Franklin D. Roosevelt, had visited the company two years earlier on 29 September 1942 during his whistle-stop tour of production facilities across the country. Truman was the guest of Andrew Higgins at a luncheon at the Roosevelt Hotel. Higgins called Senator Truman’s visit to New Orleans and to Higgins Aircraft a “perfectly happy occasion.” The visit was pictured in the Higgins newspaper, Higgins Worker issuefrom 20 October 1944.
The Prima brothers from New Orleans, Leon and Louis, were featured in the 8 September 1944 issue of The Higgins Worker, when Louis traveled through New Orleans on tour. Louis Prima had gained success in the 1930s as jazz vocalist, trumpeter and bandleader. During the war, Louis continued to enjoy popularity, despite the overt Italian themes in his music (his hit “Angelina (Waitress at the Pizzeria)” was released in 1944). His older brother, Leon Prima, also a musician of some note, was employed at Higgins Industries as a mill worker.
