SEPTEMBER 7 • 2023 | 17

“THANK YOU TO THE BOARD FOR THIS HONOR AND PRIVILEGE TO 
ALLOW ME TO REPRESENT THE WWII VETERANS. 
ON THEIR BEHALF, I ACCEPT THIS GROUND TODAY.” 

—ART FISHMAN

With their numbers dwin-
dling rapidly, this memorial 
must be the embodiment of 
those stories and a voice to 
educate and serve future gener-
ations.

THE OFFICIAL DEDICATION
The highlight of the day was the 
official dedication of the memo-
rial when Sr. Vice Commander 
of the JWV
, Art Fishman, 
96, and 101-year-old Frances 
Masters, an original Rosie the 
Riveter, received rousing ova-
tions from the stage. The two 
were chosen to officially accept 

the memorial on behalf of all 
Michigan’s WWII veterans and 
Rosies. 
Fishman, who served in the 
Navy, has volunteered tirelessly 
on behalf of the memorial for 
over a decade. In the weeks 
leading up to the dedication, he 
assisted in the layout and posi-
tioning of brick pavers, taking 
special care that bricks donated 
by the JWV were grouped 
together.
If you needed a water break, 
you could always depend on 
Fishman’s daily delivery of a 
cooler stocked with ice-cold 

water bottles. Team Depot, a 
volunteer corps of employees 
from Home Depot, were benefi-
ciaries of Art’s generosity on the 
day they helped lay sod at the 
memorial.
 “Thank you to the board 
for this honor and privilege 
to allow me to represent the 
WWII veterans,
” he said from 
the stage. “On their behalf, I 
accept this ground today.
”
Frances Masters represented 
her fellow Rosies in grand style, 
which included wearing the 
iconic red and white polka dot-
ted bandana on her head that 

famously identified the factory 
workers of that era.
Masters heard a plant was 
being built at Willow Run as the 
war was raging on. “I jumped 
at the chance to help the 
American people with this war,
” 
she said. “I had two brothers in 
the service, and my future hus-
band was in the Marines.
” 
 The applause that followed 
was immediately tempered 
when she revealed the fate of 
her older brother. “He served at 
the Battle of the Bulge. He never 
came home.
”

A flag-raising ceremony honors each branch of 
the military.

continued on page 18

JIM HOUSE

