June Concannon is seen at center.
When she was a freshman at Mossyrock High School, June Genevieve Ayers enjoyed listening to her father’s music, spending time with friends, and occasionally going to see a Shirley Temple movie at the theater.
Then, while listening to the radio with her parents on Dec. 7, 1941, she heard that the Japanese had bombed U.S. Navy ships at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii.
“I did not realize the horrible side of the whole thing,” said June (Ayers) O’Connell Concannon of Centralia, who turns 91 Thursday.
Life changed quickly. High school boys rushed to enlist in the military. Her mother, Ella Ayers, volunteered as a plane spotter.
Demand soared for military aircraft, ships and ammunition.
“Many men were overseas, and Boeing put out the call for women,” said Concannon, who worked from 1943 to 1945 at Boeing Co.’s branch plant in Chehalis as a mechanic assistant and tool room attendant. She wore overalls for the first time in her life, and covered her hair with either a handkerchief or a net, depending on the job she was doing.
Her sweetheart, Charles “Irish” O’Connell, served aboard a submarine, the USS Aspro 309. They married Feb. 11, 1944, in Olympia after he returned from the South Pacific and before he left for San Francisco. She knew many servicemen, as did most of the women working at Boeing.
“There was such a feeling of unity, just like a big family; also the feeling of doing something constructive for our friends and loved ones in the service,” she said. “We had a very positive attitude that made each day better.”
She’s always remembered the August day when she was working upstairs in the tool room and loud sirens wailed. She didn’t know what had happened, but eventually heard yells saying the war had ended.
“I never saw people vacate so fast and I froze,” she said. “Finally, I could move and join in. Then I received a telegram from my husband in the submarine service that he was fine — it all happened so fast.”
In November, photos of Concannon bowling in Centralia, growing up in Mossyrock, and sitting beside her submariner during the war years will grace the 2017 calendar produced by Washington Women in Trades. It features Rosie the Riveters, the first women to work at industrial and manufacturing jobs. Photographer Robin Murphy and designer Cynthia Polly Payne from WWIT spent Friday afternoon at Fairway Lanes in Centralia photographing and interviewing Concannon, who bowls there twice a week. She was joined by her three grown children — Mike O’Connell, of Seattle; Robyn Overbay, of Mossyrock; and Mary Rico, of Toledo.
“Many people have no idea about these hardworking young women who helped with the war effort,” Rico said, adding appreciation for those who help preserve their stories and honor these women.
A dozen Lewis County Rosie the Riveters graced the pages of the organization’s 2014 calendar, but Concannon wasn’t among them. She’ll be featured with other Rosies throughout the region on the 2017 calendar, which will be unveiled in November at the organization’s annual dinner. Calendars, which cost $20, can be purchased at www.wawomenintrades.com.
Charles O’Connell was killed in a logging accident Nov. 15, 1961, when his children were 14, 10 and 8. She later remarried.
Concannon said she’s a little embarrassed about being featured as a “calendar girl,” but also feels “very honored.”
“The calendar is a very special way to keep alive the memory and efforts of the Rosies, and the small part they played in World War II efforts, and to share the history of this group of people to many whom perhaps have never heard of the Rosies,” she said.
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Julie McDonald, a personal historian from Toledo, may be reached at memoirs@chaptersoflife.com.
