FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
December 3, 2025
CAMDEN, N.J. — The Battleship New Jersey Museum & Memorial is honored to announce a special birthday celebration for longtime WWII home-front worker and original “Rosie the Riveter,” Rose Jordan, who turns 103 this month. The festivities will take place aboard the battleship on Sunday, December 7, 2025, from 2:00 to 4:00 p.m. The media is welcome to join us in recognizing a remarkable life of service, strength, and sacrifice.
Rose Jordan was born in 1922 and, at just 20 years old, began working at the Philadelphia shipyard in 1942, then part of the wartime mobilization effort that saw women across the country enter heavy-industry and defense manufacturing. As a sheet-metal worker employed by the wartime civilian workforce, she contributed directly to ship construction, skillfully handling steel and metal much like the women immortalized under the moniker “Rosie the Riveter.”
Although the “Rosie the Riveter” image most Americans know, a bandana-clad female worker flexing strength and resolve, was originally a symbolic and partially fictional creation, it was inspired by the real efforts of thousands of women like Rose: working long hours in factories and shipyards, rivet guns or welding torches in hand, keeping America’s industrial infrastructure going while men fought overseas.
Rose, a member of the wartime civilian workforce referred to as Women Ordnance Workers (WOWs), helped fill the urgent demand for skilled labor, a crucial part of the war effort. WOWs, along with other female workers, operated heavy machinery, assembled weapons and ammunition, and performed metalwork, shipbuilding, and other vital industrial labor. Rose worked on what would become Battleship New Jersey (BB-62) at the Philadelphia Shipyard and remained on duty at the Navy Yard through the end of the war. Her work stands as a testament to the thousands of women whose labor built the “arsenal of democracy.”
We are honored to be joined at this celebration by Jennifer Fleisher, Camden County Commissioner and Veterans’ Liaison, who will present Rose with a formal Proclamation in recognition of her wartime contributions and lifelong story. We invite local media to attend this touching tribute to one of America’s living links to WWII home-front history.
WHEN:
Sunday, December 7, 2025
2:00 – 4:00 PM
WHERE:
Battleship New Jersey Museum & Memorial
62 Battleship Place, Camden, NJ 08103
For more information, visit battleshipnewjersey.org or call (856) 966-1652
About Battleship New Jersey Museum & Memorial:
The Battleship New Jersey Museum & Memorial is America’s most decorated battleship and serves as a symbol of our nation’s military history and strength. Located on the Camden waterfront, Battleship New Jersey Museum & Memorial, a nonprofit organization, is dedicated to preserving history and educating the public about the service of the men and women in the U.S. Armed Forces.
Media Contact:
Julianne Dods
Deputy Executive Director of Strategic Growth
Battleship New Jersey Museum and Memorial
856-966-1652 xx 201
j.dods@battleshipnewjersey.org
CC:
Marshall Spevak, Chief Executive Officer, Battleship New Jersey Museum and Memorial
Emma Hermo, Social Media Manager, Battleship New Jersey Museum and Memorial
