National Home Front Project - Meet Wilodeen Brady

The National Home Front Project is a major grassroots initiative under the leadership of historians at Washington College. Our innovative oral history program partners with individuals, communities, and organizations across the United States to record, preserve, and share audio interviews with civilians who experienced World War II. By pulling together in the spirit of wartime Americans, we can ensure that future generations hear their voices, and that our country never forgets its past. For this short entry, we’d like to share the story of Wilodeen Brady.

Wilodeen was born and raised on a farm in West Virginia and was a young woman at the onset of World War II. She plowed with her brother on her family farm and served as a riveter at Eastern Aircraft in Baltimore, Maryland, during the war. While at Eastern Aircraft she learned a special riveting sign language and experienced a workplace injury in the factory.

In the interview for the National Homefront Project, she shares stories about her childhood in West Virginia and discusses her brief work as a waitress in Baltimore until she turned eighteen and acquired a job at Eastern Aircraft. She details her time as a riveter as well, where she learned the job process, the mandatory dress code, and the importance of her work. Wilodeen also shares a story about her riveting partner’s drill accidentally piercing a hole through her thumb. She ends the interview with advice to young women today about determination. If you’d like to know more, you can hear her story for yourself, here.